“Woman and Child,” 1604–1606, black and red chalk by Bernardino Poccetti, Italian, 1548–1612.

The Bowdoin College Museum of Art presents this week the first-ever survey of the Museum’s extensive collection of drawings, widely considered the oldest public collection of works on paper on the continent. Why Draw? 500 Years of Drawings and Watercolors at Bowdoin College illuminates the foundational and evolving role of drawing within Western artistic practice.

The exhibition will be on view May 3–September 3, 2017, and includes more than 150 works by American and European artists, including Peter Paul Rubens, Winslow Homer, Henri Matisse, and Roy Lichtenstein, among many others. Listen to curator Joachim Homann as interviewed by College Writer and Multimedia Producer Tom Porter on WBOR Radio.