Collections Study for the Head of St Charles Borromeo Rome, 1658-90 Red chalk heightened with white on blue paper 36.1 x 27.9 cm This drawing is a study for the head of the figure of Saint Carlo Borromeo in the High Altarpiece of the Church of S. Carlo al Corso, Rome. This study represents Saint Carlo … Read more
Sunrise Rome, 1634 Etching Paper: 12.9 x 20 cm; mount: 40.5 x 56 cm This marine scene bustles with activity as figures gesticulate, exchange glances and huddle in groups. The sun, which faintly be seen on the horizon, floods the picture with light and blurs the distant mountains. Opposite the triumphal Arch of Titus on … Read more
Le Négligé Paris, 1741 Engraving Paper: 38.6 x 27.4 cm; mount: 63 x 51.5 cm Lebas’ print reproduces ‘The Morning Toilette’, painted by Chardin (1669-1779) in 1741. Many of Chardin’s pictures were of domestic interiors, scenes of childhood and maternal love, all of which were fashionable with 18th-century French audiences. Here, a young girl glances … Read more
A Man with an Oar Netherlands, about 1520/21 Pen and brown ink 16 x 10.4 cm This fine drawing is one of a number of works believed to have been made during Dürer’s trip to the Netherlands in around 1520-21. It was among those taken from the museum of the Lubomirski family, established in the … Read more
The Coal Famine British, mid 1800s Pen and brown ink 16.8 x 11.4 cm A lady and a gentleman are seated either side of a table in overcoats and hats. The lady on the left reads an invitation to a ‘Fire Party.’ There is another work of the same subject in the Barber’s collection in … Read more
The Lime Burner London, 1859, published 1871 Etching with drypoint Plate: 25 x 18 cm; mount: 55.6 x 40.5 cm This is one of Sixteen Etchings of Scenes on the Thames which Whistler completed by 1861. They resulted from a campaign of drawing along the river in which the artist sought to document its everyday … Read more
The Mule Driver Netherlands, 1630s Etching 22 x 29.5 cm The mule with a low-slung head struggling under the weight of a heavy load is a motif that frequently appears in Both’s Italianate landscape scenes. For many, the mule was an affordable means of transport and an ideal working animal, combining the endurance and sure-footedness … Read more
The Vine London, 1852 Etching Plate: 30.5 x 21.7 cm; paper: 41.5 x 29.5 cm; mount: 55.5 x 40.4 cm Bacchus, the Roman god of agriculture and wine, leaps from his chariot in a burst of bright light to meet his followers. Vines creep across the ground and entwine themselves around trees, while plump cherubs … Read more
The Cypress Grove Redhill, Surrey, about 1880, completed 1883 Etching 13 x 19 cm Set amid a mountainous nocturnal landscape, a group of nymphs mourn for the shepherd Daphnis who has been blinded by the nymph Nomia for being unfaithful. Loosely based on Virgil’s Eclogues (42-39 B.C.), this work may have been inspired by … Read more
Ecce Homo Bologna, 1587 Etching Paper: 45 x 34.4 cm; mount: 63 x 51.5 cm Depicting a standard cycle of the Passion of Christ, the words ‘Ecce Homo’ (‘Behold the Man’) were used by Pontius Pilate to present Christ to the jeering crowds before his crucifixion. Mary swoons in the foreground, an unusual addition to … Read more
Young Love Düsseldorf, 1840 Etching 24.1 x 28.7 cm This Romantic etching is a highly atmospheric scene of love and death on a moonlit mountainside, taken from Heinrich Heine’s ‘Buch de Lieder’. ‘Love, O Love, it was your might, brought us to our sorry plight’. Their existence blighted by self-destructive love, ghostly figures rise from … Read more
The Morning after the Masked Ball Germany, 1840 Etching Plate: 21.5 x 29.1 cm This Romantic etching is an intense depiction of hallucinatory artistic inspiration. According to Boetticher, this is the artist Theodor Emil Richter in a dream-like state in his studio. Purchased 2001 (No. 2001.5)
The Castle by the Sea Berlin, 1887 Aquatint on Indian paper laid on heavy-weight wove paper 95 x 68 cm Purchased 2001 (No. 2001.10)
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt Frankfurt, 1893-97 Lithograph 20.2 x 23.2 cm Thoma sets this scene of the Holy Family resting within a realistic representation of rural life. The religious imagery is understated. Instead of the divine intervention of an angel, a female figure brings food to the family. The solitary poses of … Read more
The Infants Christ and St John playing with a Lamb Flemish, about 1635 Woodcut 34.4 x 45.9 cm Purchased 2002 (No. 2002.4)
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
The Brothers Eberhard Rome, 1822 Lithograph 32.2 x 34.8 cm Chalk lithograph on white wove paper. A double portrait of the Eberhard brothers, a painter and a sculptor. Purchased in 2003 (No. 2003.4)
The Castle by the Sea Düsseldorf, 1858 Watercolour over pen and pencil, partly heightened with white and gold 47.2 x 60.5 cm This depiction of Ludwig Uhland’s poem of the same name creates an atmosphere of melancholy and nostalgia typical of Romantic art. The king and queen, dressed in black in the middle frame, are … Read more
Anthony van Dyck Portrait of François Langlois (1589 – 1647) London, probably early 1630s Oil on canvas 97.8 x 80 cm This engaging portrait depicts François Langlois (1589-1647), an engraver, art dealer and publisher, who lived in Florence and Rome in the 1620s, where he presumably met Van Dyck. In 1634 he settled in Paris. … Read more
A Nude Girl Seated on a Bed London, 1899 Pen and ink, brown wash on paper 27.6 x 21.4 cm This is one of a number of studies that Orpen made of Emily Scobel, a model at the Slade School of Art where he was studying at this date. The drawings culminated in an oil … Read more
La vieille aux loques (The Old Rag-Picker) London, 1858 Etching 20.6 x 14.6 cm An old woman sits in a doorway absorbed in sorting rags. Although the rag picker is shown as poor and frail, her focus and disengagement from the viewer creates a calm and contemplative image. The framing device of the doorway ensures … Read more
The Battle of the Beaux and the Belles London, about 1896 Pen and black ink 25.7 x 17.6 cm This drawing was published in the 1896 edition of Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1714). Beardsley’s drawing illustrates the moment the heroine Belinda attacks the Baron (opposite) with her fan after discovering he has … Read more
Merz V Berlin, 1923 Lithograph Paper: 55 x 44.5 cm; mount: 81 x 61 cm This print is a combination of abstract, geometric forms and is one of a series of six works called ‘Merz Mappe’. Freshly printed fragments of paper, discarded from the printing process, were applied to a lithographic stone to create this … Read more
Before the Storm near Moret (Avant L’Orage environs de Moret) Published in Paris, 1877 Etching 36.2 x 51.8 cm Purchased in 2004 (No. 2004.1)
Apple Tree at Auvers (Pommiers à Auvers) Auvers, 1877 Etching on laid handmade paper, third state Plate: 18 x 27.5 cm; mount: 40.5 x 55.7 cm This print was made a year before Daubigny’s death in 1878. A peasant figure makes a path through the landscape equipped with tools for the cultivation of nature. The … Read more
Memories Germany, 1873 Watercolour over pencil, partly highlighted with gouache in gold 32.6 x 44 cm This watercolour is an allegory of the arts commissioned by the Buhler family of Berne. Alongside the attributes of painting, sculpture and architecture the intricate gothic design includes the Swiss city’s heraldic bear and key landmarks. The composition emulates … Read more
La Chute de Phaëton (The Fall of Phaeton) France, about 1905 Brush, pen and black ink 64 x 35.8 cm Phaethon, son of Helios the sun-god, persuades his father to let him drive his sun-chariot, but wreaks such havoc that he is struck from the sky by Zeus (Ovid: Metamorphoses II, 150-327). A popular theme … Read more
A Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, ‘Froanna’ (Gladys Anne Hoskins 1900-1979) America, 1940 Pencil and coloured chalks on blue paper 48.3 x 31 cm This portrait of the artist’s wife Gladys Hoskins (1900-1979), known as Froanna, was made in America where Lewis spent the war years. The artist bought the distinctive blue paper in a … Read more
La Baigneuse (The Bather) France, about 1910 Colour woodcut 19.1 x 18.8 cm Beltrand helped pioneer the use of water-based pigments in printing in France, inspired by Japanese printmaking techniques. Water based inks can produce subtle and delicate images, whereas more traditional Western woodcuts are often use oil based inks and are bolder or harsher in … Read more