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:
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi The Villa d’Este, Tivoli Rome, 1773 Etching This engraving is from a series entitled Views of Rome. In this etching, Piranesi depicted the impressive gardens of the Villa d’Este in Tivoli, originally built for Cardinal Ippolito II d’Este (1509-1572). The inclusion of tiny figures on the steps emphasises the scale of the … Read more
Jozef Israels (1824-1911)
Jozef Israels The fisherman Paris, about 1883 Etching on wove paper, probably Japanese paper, with blind stamp 498 x 391 mm Almost identical to an oil painting of about 1883 entitled ‘The Fisherman’ or ‘The Struggle for Existence’, this etching portrays a man with his sleeves and trouser legs rolled up for fishing salmon. The … 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 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)
Follower of Rembrandt, Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669), possibly Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678)
Study of a Nude Youth Amsterdam, about 1646 Pen and ink with brown wash 274 x 160 mm Rembrandt and his pupils are known to have made life drawings of naked male models in about 1646. The model here was possibly Rembrandt’s young student Willem Drost. He appears in a number of studio drawings by … 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)
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Paul Cézanne Self Portrait France, 1896/7 Lithograph 63 x 47.5 cm Purchased 1992 (No. 92.3)
Agostino Carracci (1557-1602)
Agostino Carracci Sheet of Caricature Heads Parma, 1594 Pen and brown ink on paper 20.2 x 28 cm This sheet of head studies can be viewed in the tradition of physiognomic studies began by Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) when conducting anatomical investigations. However, rather than documenting realistic detail, Carracci has reduced his sketched heads to … Read more
Théophile Chauvel (1831-1909)
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)
Max Ernst (1891-1976)
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
John Brett (1831-1902)
John Brett Study of Warwick Castle (‘The White Waterlily’) Warwick, 1860 Watercolour on paper 254 x 355 mm Early on in his career, John Brett, the leading Pre-Raphaelite landscape artist, visited the West Midlands where he produced this view of Warwick Castle. This watercolour study is, along with an early sketch, the only record of … Read more
Giorgio Ghisi (1520/4-1582)
An allegory of life (‘The dream of Raphael’) Paris, 1561 Engraving 380 x 540 mm Believed to have been inspired by Virgil’s Aeneid (19 B.C.), this work remains elusive in meaning. Ghisi’s frenetic attention to detail creates an intense, dream-like atmosphere of confusion. The splintered boat stranded amid the swirling water, jagged rocks and snarling … Read more
Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677)
Wenceslaus Hollar Queen Henrietta Maria London, 1641 Etching Henrietta Maria (1609-1669) was the daughter of Henri IV of France and the wife of Charles I. Although her Roman Catholicism alienated many of her subjects, she gave strong and devoted support to her husband. Wenceslaus Hollar was a prolific artist, producing nearly 2,800 prints and many … Read more
Gaspard Dughet (1615-1675)
Gaspard Dughet Four landscapes Engraving 216 x 213 mm Purchased 1954 (No.55.1/1)
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn (1606-1669)
Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Christ and the Woman of Samaria 1658 Etching with drypoint 126 x 156 mm The subject is from ‘John’, iv: 7-26. Three later paintings of the theme are in the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin, the Metropolitan Museum, New York, and the Hermitage, St Petersburg. Rembrandt also made two etchings of the subject, one … Read more
Owen McSwiny (1684-1754)
Owen McSwiny Tombeaux des princes, grands capitaines et autre hommes illustres qui ont fleuri dans la Grande Bretagne 1741 Engraving Paper: 650 x 424 mm; mount: 812 x 608 mm Eight engravings from the series publishes by McSwiny in 1741. Engraved by N. Dorigny, I. Cars, L. Desplaces, N.D. de Beauvais, B. Lepicie and J.P. … Read more
Edward Lear (1812-1888)
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)
Pierre Drevet (1663-1738), after Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1763)
Pierre Drevet after Hyacinthe Rigaud Portrait of Robert de Cotte Paris, 1722 Engraving on laid paper 566 x 390 mm This print reproduces Hyacinthe Rigaud’s portrait of Robert de Cotte (1656-1735), one of the most significant French architects of his time. Cotte is portrayed as a self-assured figure, dressed in richly embroidered fabrics that indicate … Read more
Gwendolen Mary John (1876-1939)
Gwendolen Mary John A Nun Seated at a Table Paris, the 1910s Black chalk on paper 32.4 x 23.5 cm This drawing of an unknown nun is closely related to the series of portraits of Mère Poussepin Gwen John executed from 1913, one of which is shown in the Blue Gallery. The artist worked from … 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 performs a static jump, directed by de Pluvinel Paris, 1629 Engraving Mount 515 x 629 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.17/8)
Edgar Degas (1834 – 1917)
Edgar Degas Mademoiselle Malo Paris, the early 1870s Pastel on paper 52.2 X 41.1 cm Mademoiselle Malo has not been conclusively identified, but apparently she was a dancer at the Paris Opéra. Degas began to use pastel for portrait studies in the 1870s and this fine example is one of the earliest. Degas appreciated the … Read more
The Prints and Drawing Study Room was created with the financial support of the DCMS/Wolfson Museums Improvement Fund.