Prints and Drawings

The art of mark-making on paper, from the Renaissance to the present. Drawings by Dürer and Rembrandt, satirical prints, watercolours, and modern graphic art.

Prints and Drawings hero image© The Trustees of the British Museum.

The art Europe made for itself, on paper.

aper was where European artists thought, experimented, and reached an audience beyond the rich — the medium of the first sketch, the multiplied image, and the cheap satirical sheet that could mock a king by morning.

Dürer's engraved precision, Rembrandt biting his own self-doubt into a plate, a caricaturist's venom, a modern artist treating the print as a finished work in its own right. Intimate, reproducible, and quietly radical.

Highlights

Drawing by Albrecht Dürer from 1515
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Drawing by Albrecht Dürer from 1515

Albrecht Dürer · 1515

paper
Drawing by Michelangelo from 1550-1553
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Drawing by Michelangelo from 1550-1553

Michelangelo · 1550-1553

paper
Drawing by Raphael from 1509-1511
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Drawing by Raphael from 1509-1511

Raphael · 1509-1511

paper
Print by Albrecht Dürer from 1513
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Print by Albrecht Dürer from 1513

Albrecht Dürer · 1513

paper
Melencolia I
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Melencolia I

Albrecht Dürer · 1514

paper
Print by Rembrandt from 1653
© The Trustees of the British Museum.

Print by Rembrandt from 1653

Rembrandt; Frans Carelse · 1653

paper

Themes

The Master's Hand: Renaissance Drawings
How the Printed Image Changed Europe
The Print as a Weapon