Don Pasquale goes to Japan
The works of the Prints and Drawings Department spend the vast majority of their time in an underground storage facility. Occasionally they leave their subterranean home to be viewed by researchers – or they may even travel further afield. We followed the journey of an operatic figure – Don Pasquale in watercolour by Karl Walser – as it made its way through the National Library and travelled onward to an exhibition in Japan.
By Beat Scherrer
The Swiss painter and printmaker Karl Walser (1877–1943) also worked as a set designer. One of his projects was designing the sets and costumes for Gaetano Donizetti’s opera Don Pasquale, which was staged in Berlin in 1906 under the direction of Hans Gregor. Six costume designs for this production are now held at the National Library, including the design for the eponymous character. Normally this watercolour is held together with the other documents from the Karl Walser collection in one of many drawers on the fifth basement level of the east underground repository. Measuring slightly larger than A4 format, the painting is housed in an envelope inside of a binder.
With two Walser exhibitions planned in Japan for 2026, the Don Pasquale watercolour was brought out for the first time in February 2024. The Japanese curators travelled to Switzerland to review the approximately 330 works in the Karl Walser collection held by the Prints and Drawings Department. They also visited other institutions holding Walser’s works for their exhibition.
Conserving and framing the originals
One year and many emails later, the National Library received a formal loan request with a list of 56 works from the Walser collection. The Don Pasquale watercolour was brought out again in September 2025 and assessed by the conservation and restoration team.
The team focused in particular on the condition and light sensitivity of the lithographs, etchings, drawings and watercolours. For each individual work, the key question was whether it could be loaned at all, from a preservation perspective. The team also checked whether the borrowing institution meets certain requirements regarding light levels, UV exposure, temperature and humidity.
On the administrative side, a loan agreement was drawn up to provide a legal basis for the travelling artwork. The agreement contained a full inventory of the works to be loaned and how much they are worth, in addition to a list of the participating institutions, the obligations of the lender and borrower, and the duration of the loan. The museums hosting the Walser exhibitions had to arrange insurance to cover all risks during the exhibition itself and in transit between Bern and Japan and back again.
Prior to preparing the originals for exhibition, conservation specialists produced a condition report for every work, noting observations such as damage to the paper, discolouration or evidence of previous handling or repair. The 56 works were then ready to be framed, using standardised simple wooden frames for all pieces. A mount-cutting machine was used to produce a bespoke mount sized precisely to the Don Pasquale watercolour.
The work was attached to the mount using narrow transparent strips before being fitted into the frame. The framed piece was then sealed: no alterations to the work are permitted for the entire duration of the loan.
The journey begins
A specialist art transport company was commissioned to handle the movement of the works from various collections across Switzerland. For the long air journey to Japan, the company commissioned custom-built crates to protect the pieces, which were carefully measured beforehand. This precise preparation meant that the frames could simply be slid into the crates one by one without any additional packaging. Three crates were needed for the 56 works. On Monday, 23 March 2026, the art transport company picked up the precious cargo and trucked it to the airport.
Unfortunately, we cannot provide details about Don Pasquale’s onward journey through the air and then overland in Japan. Many further steps must be taken before the works arrive in Japan and the first exhibition finally opens on 18 April.
As the owner of Karl Walser’s works, the National Library is looking forward to receiving images from the exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka and sharing them with our readers here.
Bibliography and sources
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