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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.

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:

Jacques-Philippe Lebas (1707-1783) after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin (1699-1779)

Jacques-Philippe Lebas after Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin Le Négligé Paris, 1741 Engraving Paper: 38.6 x 27.4 cm; mount: 63 x 51.5 cm Lebas’ print reproduces ‘The Morning Toilette’, painted by Chardin (1669-1779) in 1741. Many of Chardin’s pictures were of domestic interiors, scenes of childhood and maternal love, all of which were fashionable with 18th-century French audiences. … 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 422 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

John Leech (1817-1864)

Hunting Incidents of ‘The Noble Science’: Gone Away!, Plate 11 1865 Lithograph 445 x 595 mm Purchased 1944 (No.44.6/9)

Edmond Xavier Kapp (1890-1978)

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

Valentin Le Febvre (1642-1680/2) after Veronese (1528-1588)

Valentin Le Febvre after Veronese Raccolta di opere scelte: Venezia 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 in London, March 1956 for £7 (No. 56.10/14)

Eugen Napoleon Neureuther (1806-1882)

Eugen Napoleon Neureuther The Morning after the Masked Ball Germany, 1840 Etching Plate: 21.5 x 29.1 cm  This Romantic etching is an intense depiction of hallucinatory artistic inspiration. According to Boetticher, this is the artist Theodor Emil Richter in a dream-like state in his studio. Purchased 2001 (No. 2001.5)

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)

Adrian Ludwig Richter (1803-1884)

Adrian Ludwig Richter Genoveva Dresden, 1848 Etching 42 X 25 cm This tender portrayal of a mother and child is based on an 8th-century folk tale that was popularised during the 19th century. Condemned and abandoned by her husband, Genoveva and her child found sanctuary in the forest, where they are tended to by a … 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

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)

Albrecht Dürer 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 … Read more

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851)

Joseph Mallord William Turner The Chain of the Alps from Grenoble to Chambéri British, 1812 Etching, with mezzotint by W. Say 186 x 288 mm This plate appeared in the tenth part of the Liber Studiorum series, and is based on sketches made during Turner’s 1802 European tour. He travelled specifically to see the Alps … Read more

Francesco del Pedro (1749-1806)

Francesco del Pedro Eloisa Italy, 1700s Engraving 280 x 230 mm After Angelica Kauffman. Purchased 2004 (No.2004.3)

Allart van Everdingen (1621-1675)

Allart van Everdingen The two floating logs The Netherlands, around 1645 Etching Paper: 95 x 144 mm Mount: 405 x 556 mm Allart van Everdingen is responsible for introducing a new type of landscape into Dutch painting: rocky mountain scenes with torrents or waterfalls. The etching depicts a rural scene, where two logs float on … Read more

Jan (Johan) Sadeler I, after Paul Bril (about 1554-1626)

Jan (Johan) Sadeler I after Paul Bril Landscape with Rabbit Hunt Rome, after 1595 Etching and engraving 270 x 343 mm Multiple groups of hunters and dogs bound through the landscape in pursuit of birds and beasts. The rickety fences, meandering paths and natural disarray of the forest contrast with the neat town in the … Read more

Charles Meryon (1821-1868)

Charles Meryon La Tour de l’Horloge, Paris 1852 Etching 255 x 186 mm Meryon was known for his small but lively sketches of Parisian life. This print belongs to a series of works, Etchings of Paris, produced between 1850 and 1854 for the journal L’Artiste documenting old architectural landmarks. It shows the clock tower, the … Read more

Niccolo Boldrini (1510- after 1566)

Niccolo Boldrini Three Monkeys Imitating the Statue of Laocoön Italy, 1545 Woodcut 265 x 400 mm Purchased 1961 (No. 61.11)

David Cox (1783-1859)

David Cox Figures and Sheep on a Road near Ambleside British Pencil and watercolour 178 x 272 mm; paper support 248 x 342 mm Gifted 2015 (No. 2015.3)

Valentin Le Febvre (1642-1680/2) after Titian

Valentin Le Febvre after Titian Raccolta di opere scelte: The sacrifice of Isaac 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. 56.10/9)

Giovanni Migliara (1785-1837)

Giovanni Migliara An Architectural Capriccio 1829 Pencil and watercolour 180 x 234 mm Migliara was a scenery painter who turned to small-scale works after 1810, owing to illness. His precise, jewel-like technique and theatrical settings found much favour with patrons in his native Milan and further afield. His works are extremely rare in Britain. As … 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

Adriaen van de Velde (1636-1672)

Adriaen van de Velde A grazing cow with two sheep 1670 Etching Paper 134 x 179 mm; mount 406 x 557 mm Purchased 1956 (No.56.16)

Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)

Francisco de Goya Loyalty, Plate 17 from ‘The Proverbs’ Spain, about 1816 Etching with aquatint and drypoint 24.4 x 35.7 cm Goya’s final series of etchings, The Proverbs (Los Proverbios), also known as Disparetes or Absurdities, remain his most mysterious and enigmatic. Featuring a group of monks and friars, Loyalty appears to be concerned with … Read more

John Sloan (1871-1951)

John Sloan Fun, One Cent (New York City Life Series) American, 1905 Etching Plate: 12.2 x 17.3 cm; sheet: 25.2 x 32.4 cm  Gifted by Delaware Art Museum and the Helen Farr Sloan Estate in 2017 (No. 2017.1/5)

Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot (1727-1801)

Ennemond-Alexandre Petitot Suite de Vases: Page Two Parma, Italy 1764 Etching on laid paper Plate: 220 x 165 mm; paper: 420 x 280 mm A set of 32 engravings, with 3 printed folios. Series purchased in 1961 for £25 (No.61.4/2)

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

Pierre Étienne Théodore Rousseau (1812-1867)

Pierre Étienne Théodore Rousseau Oaks Among Boulders Barbizon, 1861 Etching Plate: 13.4 x 21 cm; paper: 30 x 40 cm; mount: 40.5 x 55.6 cm  This etching was made from Rousseau’s painting La Chene de Roches and published in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts. Rousseau depicts the heart of the forest untouched by human intervention. Rousseau’s … Read more

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

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/8 – 1543)

Hans Holbein the Younger Design for stained glass About 1520 Pen and grey wash with traces of black chalk 375 x 295 mm Hans Holbein the Younger, later court painter of Henry VIII, made several designs for stained glass windows in his early career. The inclusion of a mitre and crozier suggests that the design … Read more

Otto Dix (1891-1969)

Otto Dix Chalk Cliffs in the Sun German, 1916 Black chalk on beige paper 284 x 208 mm The experience of war was a dominant theme in Dix’s work until the 1930s. Taken from a sketchbook compiled during the artist’s service in the German field artillery during the First World War, this drawing depicts a … Read more

British School, 19th century

British School, 19th century Portrait of Frederick Walker (1840-1875) Red chalk heightened with white on buff paper 496 x 612 mm The artist is standing in his studio, and is seen at three-quarter length, a brush in his right hand, his head turned three-quarters to the right. Behind him, on an easel, is a picture. … Read more

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