The Prints and Drawings Study Room
The Prints and Drawings Study Room houses our fine collection of prints, drawings and watercolours, comprising more than 1,000 works and six centuries of the draughtsman’s and printmaker’s arts.
The study room is open to researchers and the general public by appointment only.
Due to essential building improvement works, the Prints and Drawings Study Room is currently closed to the public until summer 2024.
For research enquires please email: collections@barber.org.uk
We have outstanding drawings in our collection by varied artists such as Tess Jaray, Fra Bartolommeo, Rembrandt van Rijn, JMW Turner, Edgar Degas and Gwen John.
Prints include exceptional works by Albrecht Dürer, Francisco Goya, Italian and Flemish Renaissance masters and 19th-century and 20th-century artists from Pablo Picasso and Elizabeth Frink to Käthe Kollwitz.
Many of our prints and drawings can be viewed on our website, or on the University's Online Collections. We are still in the process of digitising our full collection of works on paper, so please bear with us.
A rotating selection of works on paper are displayed in our dedicated Print Bays (located in the Green and Beige galleries) – typically there are six print displays a year.
Explore our prints and drawings online:
Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)
Four landscapes Engraving 225 x 210 mm Purchased 1954 (No.55.1/3)ShareTweetSharePin
Adolph von Menzel (1815-1905)
A Study for ‘Contribution’ Germany, about 1884 Carpenter’s pencil with stumping 22.9 x 15.2 cm Menzel was the leading master of later nineteenth-century German art. In its deftness and subtlety of line and modelling, it compares with the life drawings of Degas, also represented in the Barber collection. The drawing is a study for the … Read more
attributed to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621 – 1674)
The Parting of David and Jonathan About 1632/3 Pen and wash Sheet 206 x 268 mm; mount 630 x 516 mm The subject which was formerly known as ‘The reconciliation of David and Absalom’, is from I ‘Samuel’, xx: 41-2, and thought to be by Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606 – 1669). It is treated … Read more
John Leech (1817-1864)
Hunting Incidents of ‘The Noble Science’: The Noble Science, Plate 5 1865 Lithograph 445 x 595 mm Purchased 1944 (No.44.6/4) ShareTweetSharePin
Stefano della Bella (1610-1664)
Les cinqs morts – Death holding a child Italy, 1648 Etching with engraving 191 x 153 mm Purchased 1954 (No.55.5/2) ShareTweetSharePin
Jacques Callot (1592-1635)
The Battle of Avigliano Paris, about 1630 Engraving Plate 356 x 534 mm; mount 522 x 635 mm Callot produced numerous topographical prints and scenes of warfare during the 1630s. This etching shows the battle between the French and Austrian armies outside Avigliano, a small town in Southern Italy. One of Callot’s characteristic traits is … Read more
EDGAR DEGAS (1834-1917)
MISS LALA AT THE CIRQUE FERNANDO France, 1879 Black chalk with touches of pastel 470 x 320 mm In 1879 Degas made this preparatory drawing of Miss LaLa, an acrobat of mixed European and African parentage. Renowned for her agility, she performed throughout Europe. This daring perspective shows LaLa suspended from the rafters of the … Read more
Crispin de Passe the Younger (c.1597 – c.1670)
L’instruction du roy en l’exercice de monter à cheval – Two posts linked by a decorative cord, with a saddle and a whip Paris, 1629 Engraving Plate 322 x 416 mm; mount 515 x 629 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.17/4) ShareTweetSharePin
Owen McSwiny (1684-1754)
Tombeaux des princes, grands capitaines et autre hommes illustres qui ont fleuri dans la Grande Bretagne 1741 Engraving Paper: 650 x 422 mm; mount: 812 x 608 mm Eight engravings from the series publishes by McSwiny in 1741. Engraved by N. Dorigny, I. Cars, L. Desplaces, N.D. de Beauvais, B. Lepicie and J.P. Le Bas. … Read more
John Leech (1817-1864)
Hunting Incidents of ‘The Noble Science’: Gone Away!, Plate 11 1865 Lithograph 445 x 595 mm Purchased 1944 (No.44.6/9) ShareTweetSharePin
Owen McSwiny (1684-1754)
Tombeaux des princes, grands capitaines et autre hommes illustres qui ont fleuri dans la Grande Bretagne 1741 Engraving Paper: 650 x 424 mm; mount: 812 x 608 mm Eight engravings from the series publishes by McSwiny in 1741. Engraved by N. Dorigny, I. Cars, L. Desplaces, N.D. de Beauvais, B. Lepicie and J.P. Le Bas. … Read more
John Leech (1817-1864)
Mr Briggs contemplates a day’s fishing Coloured etching 240 x 299 mm Fishing was seen as a means of escaping urban congestion, offering the working man relaxation. Mr Briggs’s front-room construction of this contemplative sport is rather more frenetic, as his line knocks candlesticks, picture frames and vases from the mantel piece. Briggs’s shocked wife … Read more
Jan van de Velde (c.1593-1641)
The Seasons: Summer Enkhuizen, 1617 Etching Paper 265 x 350 mm; mount 405 x 557 mm This etching of a landscape during summer in Holland is part of a series of the seasons made by Jan van de Velde in 1617. Jan van de Velde derived from a family of painters, engravers, etchers, and printmakers who had a profound … Read more
John Leech (1817-1864)
A Bracing Day at the Seaside British Watercolour over pencil 252 x 350 mm A family group struggle against the wind to walk along Scarborough Pier, whilst large waves break behind them. Leech’s characterisation of the holiday spirit is demonstrated by the ecstatic children in the foreground, the grimacing female guiding them, and the striding … Read more
Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)
Four landscapes Engraving 225 x 210 mm Purchased 1954 (No.55.1/4) ShareTweetSharePin
Crispin de Passe the Younger (c.1597 – c.1670)
L’instruction du roy en l’exercice de monter à cheval – The King in the Great Stables of the Louvre Paris, 1629 Engraving Plate 324 x 420 mm; mount 515 x 629 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.17/3) ShareTweetSharePin
Jozef Israels (1824-1911)
The fisherman Paris, about 1883 Etching on wove paper, probably Japanese paper, with blind stamp 498 x 391 mm Almost identical to an oil painting of about 1883 entitled ‘The Fisherman’ or ‘The Struggle for Existence’, this etching portrays a man with his sleeves and trouser legs rolled up for fishing salmon. The work focuses … Read more
The Prints and Drawing Study Room was created with the financial support of the DCMS/Wolfson Museums Improvement Fund.