Services
The Western Art Print Room
The Print Room of the Department of Western Art is open to the public, students and visiting scholars alike for the study and enjoyment of drawings and prints from the collection. There is normally no need to make an appointment, but since space is limited it may be advisable to do so if you are making a special journey to the Museum. Once in the Museum, visitors should ask to be announced at the Information Desk or in the Mallett Gallery (Gallery 40); they will then be given directions to the Print Room. Visitors will be asked to sign a register, and proof of identity may be requested. Bags and coats must be left in the care of the Print Room Supervisor at the door, and a pencil should be used for making notes.
Access to almost all works in the collection is freely available, but visitors wishing to see drawings by Michelangelo and Raphael are requested to apply to the Keeper in writing in advance. Although there is no lift access to the Print Room, items from the collection can be made available for visitors who have difficulty with stairs.
Visiting the Print Room
Opening Hours:
- Tuesday to Saturday: 10am-1pm and 2pm-4pm.
- Closed: Sunday and Monday, and from Christmas Eve to the day after Boxing Day Bank Holiday, 1st January (Tuesday), Good Friday to Easter Monday; St Giles's Fair (Monday and Tuesday following first Saturday in September)
Fragile works of art
Some works in the collection have restricted access due to their conservation issues, particularly Michelangelos and Raphaels. Special arrangements need to be made to see any extremely fragile works so please contact the Print Room - a week in advance - of your visit to avoid disappointment.
Contact details:
Western Art Print Room
Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont Street
Oxford OX1 2PH
Tel: +44 (0)1865 278049 (direct line for the Print Room)
Fax: +44 (0)1865 278056
Email: waprintroom@ashmus.ox.ac.uk.
Opinions in the Department of Western Art
Members of the curatorial staff of the Department are usually available on Wednesday afternoons between 2 and 4pm in the Print Room to give opinions on works of art brought in by members of the public. No comment on valuation can be made, and opinions are given on the understanding that neither the University nor any individual can accept liability for any opinion expressed.
The Collection
The Print Room of the Department of Western Art houses one of the finest collections in Britain of European prints and drawings from the fifteenth century to the present day. Many of the works were given to the University of Oxford by a few prominent benefactors in the nineteenth century, but during the tenure of Sir Karl Parker as Keeper of the Department (1934-62) the Print Room was established on its present basis and numerous drawings, by both Old Masters and more recent artists, were acquired by gift and purchase. Most Western European Schools are now well represented.
Old Masters
At the heart of the collection is a large, representative group of drawings by Raphael and Michelangelo, which was acquired by public subscription in 1842 from the celebrated collection of the painter Sir Thomas Lawrence. Some years later, in 1855, there arrived the extraordinary gift from the collector Chambers Hall, including superb series of prints and drawings by Claude, the Ostade family and Rembrandt, as well as several drawings by Leonardo. In 1863, many of the prints and drawings from the enormous bequest of Francis Douce (d.1834) were transferred from the Bodleian Library. Douce was particularly interested in Northern art of the Renaissance, and the bequest included important drawings and prints by Dürer and other German, French and Netherlandish masters. The deposit in 1985 of the collection of Guercino drawings belonging to Sir Denis Mahon made the Ashmolean a principal repository of the work of this brilliant seventeenth-century draughtsman.
English Drawings and Watercolours
The collection of English drawings and watercolours also has its roots in the Douce and Chambers Hall collections and has been much enriched by subsequent gifts and purchases. It contains strong groups of works by Rowlandson, Girtin, Cozens, Cotman, Sandby, and Cox. The group of drawings by Samuel Palmer, bought by Sir Karl Parker before the artist became as popular as he is now, is second to none, and works by the Pre-Raphaelites are also numerous, including over one hundred by Burne-Jones.
The Ruskin Collection
Of particular relevance to the University are the gifts of John Ruskin, Slade Professor of Fine Art at Oxford in the 1870s and 1880s. His collection was used to illustrate his lectures and the teaching in the School of Art that bears his name. It includes some three hundred and thirty of his own drawings and seventy-seven sheets by J.M.W. Turner.
Twentieth Century Prints
Among the holdings of works by twentieth-century artists, there are sixty-seven caricatures by Sir Max Beerbohm and a representative group of drawings by Sickert and the Camden Town School. Thereafter the collection concentrates on the figurative tradition in drawing including the Lewin Gift of John Piper drawings and prints and on twentieth-century British wood engraving. It includes major archival collections of a number of engravers such as Gertrude Hermes, George Mackley, Robin Tanner, and Leon Underwood. This has been augmented in recent years by the deposit of the Diploma Collection of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. For livres d'artiste, visitors may consult items in the Christopher Hewett collection.
The Pissarro Archive
During the 1950s and 1960s, the Print Room became one of the principal centres for the study of Impressionism, thanks to the donation of the Pissarro family collection. This comprises paintings, prints, drawings, books, and letters by Camille, Lucien, Orovida, and other members of the Pissarro family.
Other Collections
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The Ashmolean also holds the most comprehensive collection in Britain of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Russian paintings and drawings, much of which was bequeathed by Mikhail Braikevitch (1874-1940), including ballet designs by Bakst, Benois and Korovin. A fine group of drawings by Leonid Pasternak was presented by his daughters in 1958. The Talbot Collection contains a remarkable range of Russian topographical material, especially prints of St Petersburg .
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Dr Grete Ring's bequest of nineteenth-century German and French drawings, including works by Caspar David Friedrich and Edgar Degas, came to the Ashmolean in 1954. It forms the nucleus of a collection of nineteenth-century German drawings hardly equalled outside Germany .
Of primarily historical interest, but still containing items of great artistic value, are two print collections formed in the first half of the nineteenth century.
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Alexander Hendras Sutherland (d.1820) and his wife grangerized folio editions of Clarendon's History of the Rebellion and Burnet's History of His Own Time with over nineteen thousand portraits and topographical views illustrating the text, which were presented by Mrs Sutherland in 1838.
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Secondly, the Revd F.W. Hope amassed a vast collection of topographical prints and portraits of British and foreign sitters, which he presented to the University in 1850.
Drawings of Oxford
An extensive collection of drawings of Oxford, made for the Oxford Almanacks, is on deposit from the Oxford University Press. However, the Ashmolean does not have a specialised collection of local topography, and visitors interested in Oxford topography should contact the Centre for Oxfordshire Studies in the Central Library, Westgate (Tel. +44 (0)1865 815749) or please click on the following link: http://www.lib.ox.ac.uk/libraries/guides/cos.html
The Hill Collection
The Hill Collection of stringed instruments is, instrument for instrument, one of the most impressive in the world, and in the field of the violin it is unsurpassed. It is frequently consulted by instrument makers from around the world Messrs W E Hill & sons decided to commission a series of working drawings by John Pringle and Stephen Barber to meet the needs of the craftsman instrument-maker.
Working drawings of selected instruments in the Hill Collection of Musical Instruments
Measured drawings and personal observations on the present condition, construction and original workmanship of individual instruments are available from the Publications Department. For further information on the measured drawings, please see the Publications pages.