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

Images inside the coin and print study room at The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham.

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:

Jan Lievens (1607-1674)

Jacques Gaultier, lutenist Etching Paper 265 x 220 mm; mount 557 x 405 mm Jacques Gaultier (about 1600-1652) was a successful lute-player and composer at the court of Charles I of England (reigned 1625-49). Gaultier’s lute has a split peg-box to accommodate additional strings, increasing the range of the instrument. The lute was the … Read more

Gerard van der Gucht (1696-1776), after Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

Tancred and Erminia About 1720-1734 Engraving 452 x 559 mm After Poussin (see also Paintings, Poussin, No.38.9). Thought to be the only surviving reproductive engraving of Poussin’s Tancred and Erminia. Purchased 1939 (No.39.19) ShareTweetSharePin

Valentin Le Febvre (1642-1680/2)

Raccolta di opere scelte: St Peter martyr Venice, published 1786 Engraving Title page and 59 engravings after mainly Venetian paintings published by Teodoro Viero, Venice, 1786. The majority of the plates are by Le Febvre, S. Maniago, A. Zucchi, and P. Monaco. Purchased 1956 (No. 56.10/2) ShareTweetSharePin

Fabrizio Chiari (1621-1695), after Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

Venus and Mercury Rome, 1636 Etching Venus, the ancient Roman goddess of Beauty and Love, reclines languidly beside a golden chariot while Mercury, the Protector of the Arts, rests in the shade by her side. The soft plump curves of her body exemplify Renaissance ideals of beauty. In the foreground, Cupid fights with a … Read more

Crispin de Passe the Younger (c.1597 – c.1670)

L’instruction du roy en l’exercice de monter à cheval – The King performs circular trends in the presence of members of the royal court Paris, 1629 Engraving Mount 515 x 629 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.17/7) ShareTweetSharePin

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

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 part of Liber Studiorum. … Read more

Walter Sickert (1860-1942)

La Gaité, Montparnasse Montparnasse, about 1919 Etching and engraving Plate 14.1 x 10.7 cm; mount 15.8 x 11.9 cm Purchased 2016 (No. 2016.6) Bequeathed by Charles Branchini through the Art Fund ShareTweetSharePin

DAVID COX (1783-1859)

Snowdon Gwynedd, 1853 Black chalk and watercolour, on Scotch paper 210 X 372 MM David Cox often travelled to Wales and frequently portrayed the mountains of North Wales throughout his career. This rapid watercolour sketch was most likely completed on the spot. Cox increasingly used ‘Scotch paper’, a type of wrapping paper, during his later years. The irregular, … Read more

Hendrik Goudt (1585-1630), after Adam Elsheimer (1578-1610)

The Mocking of Ceres Rome, 1610 Etching with engraving 319 x 247 mm An old woman protects a boy as he mocks Ceres, the goddess of nature, in this episode from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ceres pauses to drink while searching for her daughter who has been abducted by Pluto, god of the underworld. The juxtaposition of … Read more

ÉDOUARD MANET (1832-1883)

Charles Baudelaire Paris, 1865 Etching Composed after a photograph by the French photographer Nadar, this etching captures the immediacy of the original photographic image. The short busy lines swirl across the paper to build up the likeness of the art critic and poet Charles Baudelaire. Nadar took a direct approach to his portraiture, intending to … Read more

Edmond Xavier Kapp (1890-1978)

Pablo Picasso Paris, 1938 Lithograph 553 x 443 mm Purchased 1969 (No.69.9/243) ShareTweetSharePin

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

Johann Baptist Klauber (1712-1787)

Henricus I (Henry the Fowler) Augsburg, 1745-50 Engraving 572 x 762 mm Klauber, a successful print maker and publisher in Augsburg, was greatly influenced by nature and medieval history. This richly detailed scene is one of thirteen he created featuring birds and hunts. A 10th-century German king, Henry I is generally considered to be the … Read more

Andrea Andreani (c. 1560-1623)

Hercules and the Nemean Lion Mantua/Rome, about 1520 Chiaroscuro woodcut 250 x 188 mm Hercules is perhaps the best known classical hero. Killing the Nemean Lion was the first of his Twelve Labours, as series of challenges which atoned for the murder of his wife and sons, and demonstrated the triumph of Good over Evil. … Read more

Hubert Robert (1733-1808)

Study of a Tree with a Figure Paris, about 1780 Red chalk, over squaring in black chalk, on paper 385 x 524 mm Robert was a garden designer as well as a painter and trees formed an important part of his landscape subjects. He was also a prolific draughtsman, invariably using red chalk, a medium … Read more

Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680)

Abraham’s Sacrifice Etching Paper 427 x 326 mm; mount 630 x 517 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.15) ShareTweetSharePin

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

Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)

Four landscapes Engraving 216 x 213 mm Purchased 1954 (No.55.1/1) ShareTweetSharePin

GEORGE BELLOWS (1882-1925)

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 and other … Read more

Charles-François Daubigny (1817-1878)

The Children in the Cart Auvers-sur-Oise, 1861 Etching Plate: 130 x 180 mm; paper: 280 x 250 mm; mount: 405 x 555 mm Daubigny watches from his boat as a woman, possibly his wife, assists a group of children pulling a cart. Madame Daubigny holds her youngest son’s hand while he rides sleepily in the cart. … Read more

Peter Herwegen (1814-1893)

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

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

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

Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641)

Lucas Vorsterman Antwerp, about 1630 Etching 248 X 160 MM Lucas Vorsterman (1595-1675) was a talented engraver who was employed by Rubens to create reproductions of the master’s work until a violent dispute ended their relationship. This engraving is one of 80 prints that appeared in Van Dyck’s series ‘portraits of famous men’, later known … Read more

Bartolommeo Biscaino (1632-1657)

Salome Italy Etching Plate: 220 x 180 mm; mount: 556 x 405 mm Purchased 1966 (No. 66.6) ShareTweetSharePin

Philip Galle (1537-1612)

The Story of the Prodigal Son – The Prodigal Son Leaving His Father’s House Netherlands, 1562 Engraving This is the first in a series of six engravings based on the story of the Prodigal Son from the New Testament (Luke 15). It tells a moral tale of adolescent rebellion in which the son is shown … Read more

Richard Earlom (1743-1822), after Lemeul Francis Abbott (1760-1802)

The Right Honourable Lord Nelson (1758-1805), Rear Admiral of the Blue London, 1798 Mezzotint on laid handmade paper 520 x 368 mm Nelson is shown in the uniform of a Rear Admiral of the British Navy. His chest is decorated with the Star and Ribbon of the Bath and the Naval Gold Medal, awarded for … Read more

Johann Heinrich Tischbein (1751-1829)

Study from ‘The Massacre of the Innocents’ Rome, about 1780 Black chalk on paper 490 x 365 mm Tischbein made this drawing in Rome during a study trip to Italy (1779-1781). This was a common journey for artists at the time, giving them the chance to study and copy works of Renaissance masters. Here, Tischbein focuses … Read more

Karel Dujardin (1621/2-1678)

A Shepherdess Talking to her Dog Dutch, 1653 Etching 190 x 220 mm ShareTweetSharePin

Alfred George Stevens (1817-1875)

Study of a Nude Figure London, About 1847 Red chalk on buff paper 165 x 164 mm This nude study is one of numerous preparatory studies for decorative frieze (now in the Walker Art Gallery) which was commissioned by the Blundell family for Deysbrook House, near Liverpool. The drawing is probably part of a larger … Read more

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

Explore the collection

The Prints and Drawing Study Room was created with the financial support of the DCMS/Wolfson Museums Improvement Fund.