• ACAE Gallery
• Time: Jan 31,2026

European Masters Original Autographs and Letters

European Masters: Original Manuscripts and Letters

Who Is Writing? — Authentic Letters and Manuscripts by Literary, Artistic, and Historical Figures

For many, manuscripts and letters represent a primary form of written expression. Before publication, revision, or historical interpretation, writing exists as a private and immediate act.This exhibition presents a selection of rare original manuscripts and letters drawn from European cultural and intellectual history. These works were not created for display. They emerged from moments of writing, reflection, and correspondence, thereby preserving thoughts and musings in extemporised form, rather than in a polished or final state. 

In these originals, writing functions not only as language, but as material evidence. Variations in handwriting, spacing, hesitation, and correction record the physical and temporal conditions of writing itself. Presented together, these works invite close and attentive viewing. Reading becomes a slower encounter, where writing is experienced as process rather than conclusion. By foregrounding the manuscript as an object, the exhibition offers a reconsideration of the act of writing— not as completed narrative, but as an enduring trace of human activity across time.

Included are original manuscripts by:

Claude Monet, 

Eugene Delacroix, 

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, 

Auguste Rodin,

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 

Victor Hugo, 

Alexandre Dumas, 

Charles Dickens, 

Frederick Leighton,

Arthur Conan Doyle,

W. Somerset Maughan,

Napoleon Bonaparte,

Queen Victoria 

策展人 

Curators

史大明（Damian Smith）, 邱见（Quinn Qiu）