The Barber Collective

The Barber Collective re-interpret the collection through interdisciplinary art, music and performance practice. Collaborating with artists, designers and musicians, the group of 16 – 21 year olds discuss, re-imagine and create. Enjoy this exhibition of work by the first cohort. Check out their Instagram to see what they’ve been up to. 

William Hogarth (1697-1764)

Night (from the sequence ‘The Four Times of the Day’) London, 1738 Etching and graving, black ink on paper Paper: 48.6 x 40.2 cm; mount: 80.8 x 40.2 cm Disorder and chaos rule in this side-street of taverns and brothels near Charing Cross. Children sleep under a table while a drunken Freemason is escorted home … Read more

William Hogarth (1697-1764)

Evening (third in the sequence from ‘The Four Times of the Day’) London, 1738 Etching and engraving with red ink  Paper: 48.5 x 40.6; mount: 80.8 x 60.5 cm Clenched fists and furrowed brows indicate an oncoming tantrum as this brother and sister quarrel over a gingerbread man. The contrast between the children’s elegant clothing … Read more

William Hogarth (1697-1764)

Noon (second in sequence from ‘The Four Times of the Day’) London, 1738 Etching and engraving, black ink on paper Paper: 49 x 41 cm; mount: 80.8 x 60.5 cm  Dour-faced worshippers shuffle into the bright midday light from the Protestant French Huguenot church at St Giles’s-in-the-Field, London. Across the street, the rowdy patrons of … Read more

William Hogarth (1697-1764)

Morning (first in the sequence from ‘The Four Times of the Day’) London, 1738 Etching and engraving, black ink on paper Paper: 48.8 x 39.7 cm; mount: 80.8 x 60.5 cm A wealthy spinster crosses Covent Garden Piazza on a freezing morning. The spinster’s attention is riveted on two embracing couples, causing her to ignore … Read more

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)

A Hilly Landscape London, about 1775-80 Black chalk and stump and white chalk on blue paper 270 x 335 mm Gainsborough rarely made drawings as preparation for a painting and at this date he did not work from nature. Instead, landscape drawings such as this were made as private studio exercises in which he manipulated … Read more

Jean-François Millet (1814-1875)

The Diggers France, unknown date Etching Two men are digging in an inhospitable landscape. Their strong shoulders, curved backs and widely planted legs suggest the strenuous nature of their task. Millet often regarded peasant figures as evoking a sense of eternal and timeless toil in an unforgiving world. He un-idealised visions were seen by many … Read more

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)

The Cirque Fernando – Architectural Study  France, c. 1879 Pencil, black and red chalk on two sheets of joined pink paper A study for the architectural background of ‘La La at the Cirque Fernando’. The Cirque Fernando was built in 1875 in the boulevard Rochechouart, Paris, near the Place Pigalle. Studies for the interior fill … Read more

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

St Christopher Nuremberg, 1521 Engraving Paper: 11.7 x 74 cm; mount: 55.7 x 40.5 cm  This print represents St Christopher, a third century martyr who served others by carrying them safely across a dangerous river. Christopher means ‘Christ-bearer’ and here he is shown bowing under the weight of a child who later revealed himself to … Read more

Édouard Manet (1832-1883)

La guerre civile  France, 1871 Lithograph Plate: 39.5 x 50.9 cm; mount: 68.3 x 77.1 cm The lithograph protests against the massacre of Parisian Communards in 1871 by French government forces. This marked the end of the tumultuous Franco-German War and the Seige of Paris. The central dead Communard is dressed in National Guard uniform. … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

Self portrait with stylus Frankurt, 1917 Drypoint 47.5 x 33 cm Beckmann depicts himself holding the tool needed to produce such a drypoint print. The use of tense and wiry lines testifies to his derelict state, having been discharged from the German army after suffering a complete mental and physical breakdown, Yet, his intent gaze … Read more

Graham Sutherland (1903-1980)

La Petite Afrique British, 1953 Lithograph This print is a study of a natural form that evokes a twisted and decaying human body, drawing comparisons with the Crucifixion images in Print Power. In 1953 he was working on the commission of a tapestry for Coventry Cathedral; there are echoes of that design in the small … Read more

Joan Miró (1893-1985)

Help Spain (Aidez L’Espagne)  Spanish, 1937 Stencil print 31.5 x 24.5 cm  A Catalan farmer raises his fist in defiance of the Fascist attack against Spain’s Republican Government. In Miró’s handwritten inscription he describes the Fascists as a spent force as opposed to the people, whose creative determination will surprise the world. Purchased 2000 (No. … Read more

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

The “Adam and Eve”, Old Chelsea London, 1879 Etching on fine Japanese paper 17.6 x 30.4 cm  Whistler’s depiction of life on the Thames in Chelsea is retrospective. This work shows an old riverside inn, The Adam and Eve, next to rows of dilapidated buildings which were demolished during the early 1870s to make way … Read more

Franz Marc (1880-1916)

Lion Hunt (after Delacroix) Berlin, 1913 Woodcut on handmade Japanese paper 28.2 x 34 cm; mount: 63 x 51.5 cm  Marc uses the woodcut technique to simplify this composition, taken from a Delacroix (1798-1863) painting of 1855, so creating strong shapes that are typical of the German Expressionist style. The eye is drawn to the … Read more

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

Self-Portrait in Profile Berlin, 1927 Lithograph on Japanese paper 59 x 45 cm Kollwitz portrays herself with signs of aging and a careworn expression, working against the traditional portrait of the woman as timeless youth. The head, as the most vital part of the body, symbolizes the artist’s wisdom and her sympathetic mentality to society. … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

Resurrection  Frankfurt, about 1918 Drypoint on laid handmade paper 37.3 x 44.6 cm; mount: 72.5 x 59 cm  This print repeats, in reverse, the composition of a large mural (Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart) that Beckmann began in 1916 but never completed. Bodies cover the ground in various states of suffering and death, many distorted, some horribly mutilated, … Read more

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

A Wild Horse  France, 1828 Lithograph on chine collé The energy and beauty of an untamed horse is captured perfectly by Delacroix. The versatile technique of lithography accurately describes the texture of the horse’s coat and the momentary nature of this scene shown through the animal’s frightened response to a gust of wind. It dates … Read more

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

The Lake of Thun  London, 1808 Etching with mezzotint  18.3 x 29.2 cm Etched by JMW Turner and engraved by Charles Turner (no relation), this print was the third plate of the artist’s Liber Studorium, a series of landscape prints intended to advertise his range. The production of which caused a disagreement between Turner and … Read more