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:
John Leech (1817-1864)
John Leech Mr Briggs contemplates a day’s fishing Coloured etching 240 x 299 mm Fishing was seen as a means of escaping urban congestion, offering the working man relaxation. Mr Briggs’s front-room construction of this contemplative sport is rather more frenetic, as his line knocks candlesticks, picture frames and vases from the mantel piece. Briggs’s … Read more
Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)
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)
Ascribed to Paulus Potter (1625-1654)
Ascribed to Paulus Potter An Old Horse Netherlands, about 1650 Black chalk Sheet 227 x 229 mm; mount 632 x 517 mm This drawing is undated but could relate to Potter’s Book of Horses of 1652 in which there are images of horses in a similar style. Potter’s small sketches are particularly sensitive and concentrate … Read more
Albert Besnard (1849-1934)
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
Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)
Gaspard Dughet Four landscapes Engraving 225 x 210 mm Purchased 1954 (No.55.1/2)
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
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
Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 – 1851)
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
Charles Samuel Keene (1823-1891)
Charles Samuel Keene 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 … Read more
Gerard van der Gucht (1696-1776), after Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
Gerard van der Gucht after Nicolas Poussin 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)
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Jan van Goyen A Village Scene Dutch, 1631 Black chalk and grey wash 11.1 x 18.6 cm Another drawing by van Goven of the same subject and date is in the Albertina, Vienna. Purchased in 1936 (No. 36.8)
Walter Sickert (1860-1942)
Walter Sickert 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
Jan van de Velde (c.1593-1641)
Jan van de Velde The Seasons: Winter Enkhuizen, 1617 Etching Paper 265 x 350 mm; mount 405 x 557 mm This etching of a landscape during winter in Holland is part of a series of the seasons made by Jan van de Velde in 1617. Van de Velde’s simple composition and fluent hatching captures the bleakness of a … Read more
Fabrizio Chiari (1621-1695), after Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
Fabrizio Chiari after Nicolas Poussin 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, … Read more
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi The Palazzo della Sacra Consulta 1752 Etching with engraving 405 x 610 mm This print shows the façade of a palace in central Rome designed by Ferdinando Fuga in 1732 for Pope Clement XII, which housed the papal tribunal, termed the Consulta. The building is now used as the Supreme Court of … 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 – A diagram of riding equipment Paris, 1629 Engraving Plate 320 x 415 mm; mount 515 x 629 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.17/2)
Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)
Francisco de Goya Who will Bell the Cat? (Quien se pondrá el casabel al gato?) Spain, about 1816-24 Etching with aquatint and drypoint Plate 3 from Los Proverbios. Purchased 1959 (No. 59.10)
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 – Two posts linked by a decorative cord, with a saddle and a whip Paris, 1629 Engraving Plate 322 x 416 mm; mount 515 x 629 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.17/4)
Francesco Guardi (1712-1793)
Francesco Guardi A Coastal Scene Venice, the 1770s Pen and brown wash with traces of black chalk 25.1 x 36.9 cm In addition to his topographical views of Venice, Francesco Guardi also produced imaginary landscapes such as this coastal scene from the 1770s. Such drawings repeat the same range of motifs taken from the Venetian … Read more
Nicolaes Maes (1634-1693)
Nicolaes Maes Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath Dutch, about 1670-80 Pen and brown wash 20.5 x 32.5 cm The subject is from the ‘Kings’, XVII: 10. This drawing shows the biblical story from Kings during which the Lord directs Elijah to the town gates of Zarephath where a widow has been directed to provide … Read more
The Prints and Drawing Study Room was created with the financial support of the DCMS/Wolfson Museums Improvement Fund.