Aubrey Beardsley 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 … Read more
Paul Cézanne The Bathers, small plate (Les Baigneurs, petit planche) France, 1896/7 Coloured lithograph Gifted 2022 (No. 2022.2)
Vast, desolate and dramatic landscapes are shown alongside vistas of inhabited, peaceful countryside in this display of works on paper by British artists from 1780 to 1880. It showcases three stunning watercolours by Birmingham-born artist David Cox, recently donated to the gallery, as well as superb watercolours, drawings and prints by Gainsborough, Turner and Constable, among others. Th e display explores the … Read more
19th-Century Portrait Photography The dawn of photography in the mid-19th century made portraiture accessible to a much wider public. This exhibition explores early photographic studio portraiture, including the popular carte-de-visite format. The exhibition discusses how photographic techniques, backdrops, props, costumes and poses enabled public figures – ranging from Oscar Wilde through Ellen Terry to Queen … Read more
Paul Cézanne Guilaumin with the hanged man France, 1873 Etching Plate: 155 x 115 mm; paper 245 x 185 mm; mount 555 x 405 mm Purchased 1959 (No. 59.2)
Joseph Mallord William Turner Isis London, 1819 Etching, with mezzotint by W. Say 20.9 x 30 cm This image is highly reminiscent of Claude Lorrain and belongs to the elusive ‘E.P’ category. It was published in the forteenth and final installment of the Liber Studiorum series. The ruins in the foreground create a strong sense … Read more
Joseph Mallord William Turner The Chain of the Alps from Grenoble to Chambéri British, 1812 Etching, with mezzotint by W. Say 186 x 288 mm This plate appeared in the tenth part of the Liber Studiorum series, and is based on sketches made during Turner’s 1802 European tour. He travelled specifically to see the Alps … Read more
Francisco de Goya There is Something Beneath the Sackcloth (So el sayal, hay al) Spain, about 1816-24 Etching with aquatint and drypoint Plate: 24.5 x 35 cm; mount 51.8 x 63 cm Purchased 1956 (No. 56.14)
Paul Cézanne Self Portrait France, 1896/7 Lithograph 63 x 47.5 cm Purchased 1992 (No. 92.3)
Joseph Mallord William Turner 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 … Read more
Joseph Mallord William Turner Isleworth London, 1819 Etching with mezzotint 21 x 28.9 cm In 1804 Turner began renting Sion Ferry House at Isleworth in Twickenham and spent the summer of 1805 making oil sketches from a boat on the Thames. This print is based on those sketches and was published in the penultimate thirteenth … Read more
Edward Lear Tabuan Parakeet British, 1832 Coloured lithograph Paper: 53.6 x 37.5 cm; mount: 71.5 x 53 cm Purchased 2006 (No. 2006.4)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler 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 … Read more
Édouard Manet 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 … Read more
Jean-François Millet 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 … Read more
Augustus John Nude Girl Standing London or Paris, about 1906 Etching 19 x 11.5 cm A young naked woman stands with her knee upon a bed. Her pensive expression and downturned eyes suggest intimacy and naturalness. The loose, hastily etched lines highlight the mass and unevenness of her body rather than idealising her figure. The … Read more
Charles-François Daubigny 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 … Read more
Théophile Chauvel 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)
Johann Anton Ramboux 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)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler 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 … Read more
Hans Thoma 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 … Read more
Max Klinger after Arnold Böecklin 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)
Eugen Napoleon Neureuther 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)
Johann Baptist Zwecker 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 … Read more
Samuel Palmer 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 … Read more
Samuel Palmer 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 … Read more
James Abbott McNeill Whistler 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 … Read more
Arthur Illies Ripe Cornfield: Evening (Ahrenfeld am Abend) Hamburg, 1896 Colour etching on zinc 18.5 x 14.5 cm A fine impression on wove paper as issued in Pan in an edition of 1,600. This extraordinary colour etching is the product of deep biting a zinc plate and of one printing only. The colours are applied … Read more
Pierre Étienne Théodore Rousseau Oaks Among Boulders Barbizon, 1861 Etching Plate: 13.4 x 21 cm; paper: 30 x 40 cm; mount: 40.5 x 55.6 cm This etching was made from Rousseau’s painting La Chene de Roches and published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Rousseau depicts the heart of the forest untouched by human intervention. Rousseau’s … Read more