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, students and the general public by appointment only.
For research enquires or to make an appointment please email: [email protected]
Please note: the Barber's galleries are closed for a major building improvement project.
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:
Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)
Honoré Daumier Et pendant ce temps-là ils continuent à affirmer qu’elle ne s’est jamais mieux portée Paris, 1872 Lithograph 283 x 275 mm Daumier was a Republican, but there is no sense of triumph in this depiction of the Monarchy as a withered corpse in an open coffin. The Franco-Prussian War (1871-2) and resultant turmoil … Read more
Jan van de Velde (c.1593-1641)
Jan van de Velde The Seasons: Spring Enkhuizen, 1617 Etching Paper 265 x 350 mm; mount 405 x 557 mm This etching of a landscape during springtime 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 … Read more
Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617)
Hendrick Goltzius Hercules and Cacus Haarlem, 1588 Woodcut 40.9 x 33.1 cm Hercules raises his club ready to strike Cacus, a fire-breathing monster, who cowers beneath him. The cows, which Cacus had stolen from Hercules, crowd the right-hand side. Secondary characters add to the chaos of the scene by cluttering the background. The focus, however, is … Read more
Luigi Scaramuccia (1616-1680)
Luigi Scaramuccia The Crowing with Thorns Italian, mid 1600s Engraving on laid handmade paper 52.5 x 35 cm Purchased 2000 (No. 2000.2)
William Hogarth (1697-1764)
William Hogarth Noon (second in sequence from ‘The Four Times of the Day’) London, 1738 Etching and engraving, black ink on paper Paper: 49 x 41 cm; mount: 80.8 x 60.5 cm Dour-faced worshippers shuffle into the bright midday light from the Protestant French Huguenot church at St Giles’s-in-the-Field, London. Across the street, the rowdy … Read more
Crispin de Passe the Younger (c.1597 – c.1670)
Crispin de Passe the Younger L’instruction du roy en l’exercice de monter à cheval – The King is shown arriving at the Palace Royale Paris, 1629 Engraving Mount 515 x 629 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.17/9)
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)
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
Jacques Callot (1592-1635)
Jacques Callot View of the Louvre, Paris Paris, about 1629 Etching 170 x 345 mm Callot executed a pair of etching entitled The Grand Views of Paris, during his trip to the city in 1629. This series consists of the print displayed here, which shows a view of the Louvre Palace, and View of the … Read more
John Leech (1817-1864)
John Leech Hunting Incidents of ‘The Noble Science’: The Noble Science, Plate 5 1865 Lithograph 445 x 595 mm Purchased 1944 (No.44.6/4)
Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685)
Adriaen van Ostade The child and the doll 1679 Etching 104 x 93 mm A child sits on its mother’s lap and reaches for a doll while the parents fondly observe. Dolls were particularly associated with girls as they were thought to gravitate naturally towards their calling as mother and housewife even in early play. … Read more
John Leech (1817-1864)
John Leech Mr Briggs Contemplates a Day’s Fishing 1850s Pen, ink and watercolour over pencil on paper mounted on card 240.5 x 299 mm Mr Briggs stands on a table in a disordered room; his fishing line knocks objects from the mantel-piece. Mrs Briggs and their two children survey the disarray with varied expressions. A … Read more
Attributed to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621 – 1674)
Attributed to Gerbrand van den Eeckhout 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 … Read more
Lambert Doomer (1622/3-1700)
Lambert Doomer Rock Dwellings at Saumur on the Loire Dutch, 1646 Pen with grey and brown washes 22.8 x 36.5 cm The inhabitants of a rock dwelling execute their daily tasks. This scene at Saumur is on of a number of drawings made in the Loire Valley by the artist en route from Nantes in … Read more
Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)
Gaspard Dughet Four landscapes Engraving 225 x 210 mm Purchased 1954 (No.55.1/4)
André Derain (1880-1954)
André Derain 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 … Read more
John Leech (1817-1964)
John Leech Hunting Incidents of ‘The Noble Science’: Our Friend Noddy, Plate 3 1865 Lithograph 445 x 595 mm Purchased 1944 (No.44.6/2)
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo (1727-1804)
Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo The Flight into Egypt 188 x 244 mm Purchased 1955 (No. 55.3)
The Prints and Drawing Study Room was created with the financial support of the DCMS/Wolfson Museums Improvement Fund.