20th-century

Max Ernst (1891-1976)

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Max Ernst Birds in Green, Rain USA, 1959 Etching with aquatint and mixed techniques printed in colours Forms of birds and hands frequently appear in this pattern of lines. Highly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theories of the mind, Ernst experimented with automatic drawing, in which he used uncontrolled strokes in an attempt to represent the … Read more

George Bellows (1882-1925)

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George Bellows Nude, Miss Bentham  New York, 1906 Oil on canvas 181 x 89.5 cm Bellows painted this striking nude when he was studying at the New York School of Art. It demonstrates his confident ability to apply paint directly and quickly as well his admiration for earlier European realist artists, such as Manet and … Read more

Egon Schiele (1890-1918)

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Egon Schiele Crouching Woman Vienna, 1914 Drypoint 715 x 575 mm In this harrowing image, a thin woman with wounds to her body and hairs standing on end, appears imprisoned. Schiele created psychologically disturbing and erotic images of the body. In 1912 he was imprisoned for disseminating indecent drawings but by the time of this … Read more

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

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Käthe Kollwitz Woman with dead child Berlin, 1903 Etching 42.5 X 49 cm The stark, animal-like figure of a woman passionately embraces the corpse of a young boy. In 1914 this became reality for the artist when her younger son, the model for the dead boy, died in the early months of the First World … Read more

George Grosz (1893-1959)

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George Grosz Querschnitt – Platin & Co. Germany, 1920 Lithograph 675 x 535 mm Overlapping scenes of wounded soldiers, prostitutes and bourgeois businessmen in a crowded and war torn metropolis were typical of Grosz’s work following the end of World War I. In 1914 and 1917 he was called up for service but was discharged … Read more

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

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Pablo Picasso Jacqueline in Profile, Turned to the Right France, 1958 Lithograph 65.5 x 50.5 cm Picasso met the young divorcée Jacqueline Rocque in 1954 and, eight years later, she became his second wife. This is one of a series of prints he made of her in the late 1950s, the majority of which depict … Read more

Albert Besnard (1849-1934)

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Albert Besnard Auguste Rodin Paris, 1900 Etching 32.5 x 26 cm This portrait of the renowned sculptor captures the intimacy of the friendship between the two artists. A skilled draughtsman with a keen eye for detail, Besnard is known for revealing a sitter’s personality in his portraits. Presented here against a blank background and in … Read more

Otto Dix (1891-1969)

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Otto Dix Soldiers’ Graves Between the Lines Düsseldorf, 1924 Etching and aquatint 192 x 287 mm The full moon leers over the churned earth of a rat-infested mass grave; shattered body parts erupt from the soil. This nightmarish image is part of Dix’s print cycle Der Krieg (War), 1924, based on his memories as a … Read more

George Bellows (1882-1925)

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George Bellows The Life Class New York, 1917 Lithograph 354 x 494 mm The Life Class was one of a series of lithographs that Bellows produced with the printer George Miller. It may have been based on drawings made much earlier in his career, and it certainly relates to an earlier time. The potbelly stove … Read more

Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson (1889-1946)

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Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson Sur La Terrasse, Montparnasse, Paris Paris, 1919-1920 Lithograph 390 x 495 mm A fragmented, crowded vision of Parisian nightlife. In this image a lively crowd socialises under a canopy of trees, while cars speed beneath flashing signs and lights around them. Nevinson created a painting of the same title and subject … Read more

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)

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Emil Nolde Prophet Berlin, 1912 Woodcut 49.5 x 36.5 cm; mount 73 x 59 cm In this deliberately roughly-cut woodcut of an unnamed prophet, the thick hair and beard merge with the blackness of the background. Nolde pursued a unique spiritual path and sought to express his own, truly German, art. Purchased 1996 (No. 96.5)

Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)

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Käthe Kollwitz Help Russia Berlin, 1921 Lithograph A suffering and emaciated man is embraced by two pairs of tough-looking hands. Designed as a propaganda poster during the Russian Civil War, this lithograph demonstrates the artist’s sensibility to the social conditions of the working class. The print medium serves as a useful tool for spreading pacifist … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

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Max Beckmann 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 … Read more

Franz Marc (1880-1916)

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Franz Marc 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 … Read more

Joan Miró (1893-1985)

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Joan Miró 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 … Read more

Graham Sutherland (1903-1980)

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Graham Sutherland 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 … Read more

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)

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Max Beckmann 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 … Read more

Jacques Beltrand (1874 – 1977)

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Jacques Beltrand 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 … Read more

Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)

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Kurt Schwitters 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 … Read more