Prints and Drawings
European drawings, prints, engravings, and watercolors from the Middle Ages to the 19th century — one of the largest collections of works on paper in the world.
The cabinet where Europe kept its sharpest thinking on paper.
rawings and prints were where artists worked things out: the figure studied from life, the composition tried and rejected, the plate bitten and pulled in editions cheap enough to travel. The royal collection swallowed Jabach's holdings in 1671 and never stopped growing — the result is around 200,000 sheets, more than any single visitor will see in a lifetime.
Lean in close to Leonardo's left-handed hatching, Dürer's controlled fury, Rembrandt's etched self-doubt, and Watteau's red, black, and white chalk all at once. Because paper fades, these works rotate through small exhibitions; what is on view is rare, and chosen.
