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, reopening 2026.
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:
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
Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685)
Adriaen van Ostade The Cobbler Dutch, 1671 Etching Plate: 180 x 150 mm; mount: 557 x 404 mm Purchased 1948 (No. 48.19)
Cézanne, Paul (1839 -1906)
Paul Cézanne The Bathers, small plate (Les Baigneurs, petit planche) France, 1896/7 Coloured lithograph Gifted 2022 (No. 2022.2)
Johann Baptist Klauber (1712-1787)
Johann Baptist Klauber 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 … Read more
Jean Moyreau (1690-1762)
Jean Moyreau La collation Paris, 1720s Engraving 457 x 334 mm This print reproduces a painting by Watteau, one of the most successful painters in Paris during the early 18th century. Watteau pioneered a new category of painting known as ‘fêtes galantes’ that depicted the idle pursuits of the aristocracy. Such scenes were produced in … 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
Ferdinand Bol (1616-1680)
Ferdinand Bol Abraham’s Sacrifice Etching Paper 427 x 326 mm; mount 630 x 517 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.15)
Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617)
Hendrick Goltzius The companions of Cadmus devoured by the dragon Haarlem, 1588 Engraving 253 x 318 mm Goltzius worked with the artist, Cornelius van Haarlem, at the ‘Academy’ of Harlem, who made the painting (now at the National Gallery London) from which this engraving derives. Ripping claws, fangs gouging deep into flesh, scattered heads and … Read more
Ascribed to Pietro Antonio Novelli (1729-1804)
Ascribed to Pietro Antonio Novelli A Music Party Venice, about 1750 Pen and brown wash over black chalk 25 x 37.3 cm This small scale domestic scene, known as a conservation piece, was characteristic of mid 18th century art. In this example from Venice, the music party takes place during the annual carnival – the … 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)
John Leech (1817-1864)
John Leech Hunting Incidents of ‘The Noble Science’: Mr Jorrocks, Plate 12 1865 Lithograph 445 x 595 mm Purchased 1944 (No.44.6/10)
Cristofano Robetta (1462 – after 1534)
Cristofano Robetta Allegory of the power of love Florence, about 1500-20 Engraving 302 x 280 mm In this complex but beguiling allegory of the vanity of carnal love, the nudity of the figures is integral to the subject. In the centre is a male ‘captive of love’ embracing a female personification of Voluptas (Pleasure). On … Read more
Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778)
Giovanni Battista Piranesi The Palazzo di Montecitorio, Rome Rome, 1760-78 Etching with line-engraving 400 x 611 mm The imposing 16th-century exterior of the Palazzo di Montecitorio stretches into the hazy distance. Ghostly outlines of buildings and the column of Marcus Aurelius (193 AD) shimmer in the background. The combination of classical sculpture, 16th-century architecture and … 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
Ugo da Carpi (about 1480-1532), after Parmigianino (1503-1540)
Ugo da Carpi after Parmigianino The Apparition to St Petronius of the Virgin and Child with St Sebastian Mantua, 1605, published by Andrea Andreani (c. 1560-1623) Woodcut 385 x 295 mm According to Christian legend St Sebastian was sentenced to death for his faith by the Roman emperor Diocletian. A solitary arrow is the only … Read more
Percy Wyndham Lewis (1882-1957)
Percy Wyndham Lewis A Portrait of the Artist’s Wife, ‘Froanna’ (Gladys Anne Hoskins 1900-1979) America, 1940 Pencil and coloured chalks on blue paper 48.3 x 31 cm This portrait of the artist’s wife Gladys Hoskins (1900-1979), known as Froanna, was made in America where Lewis spent the war years. The artist bought the distinctive blue … 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)
Jan Both (c. 1618-1652)
Jan Both The Mule Driver Netherlands, 1630s Etching 22 x 29.5 cm The mule with a low-slung head struggling under the weight of a heavy load is a motif that frequently appears in Both’s Italianate landscape scenes. For many, the mule was an affordable means of transport and an ideal working animal, combining the endurance … Read more
Edmond Xavier Kapp (1890-1978)
Edmond Xavier Kapp Pablo Picasso Paris, 1938 Lithograph 553 x 443 mm Purchased 1969 (No.69.9/243)
Jan van de Velde (c.1593-1641)
Jan van de Velde The Seasons: Summer Enkhuizen, 1617 Etching Paper 265 x 350 mm; mount 405 x 557 mm This etching of a landscape during summer 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
Richard Earlom (1743-1822), after Lemeul Francis Abbott (1760-1802)
Richard Earlom after Lemeul Francis Abbott The Right Honourable Lord Nelson (1758-1805), Rear Admiral of the Blue London, 1798 Mezzotint on laid handmade paper 520 x 368 mm The Right Honourable Lord Nelson is shown in the uniform of a Rear Admiral of the British Navy. His chest is decorated with the Star and Ribbon … Read more
Hubert Robert (1733-1808)
Hubert Robert 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, … Read more
The Prints and Drawing Study Room was created with the financial support of the DCMS/Wolfson Museums Improvement Fund.