In 2014 I undertook the Harold Wright & Sarah and William Holmes Scholarship, which granted seven months of full-time study in the Prints & Drawings Department of the British Museum.
This fantastic opportunity enabled me to carry out wide ranging research within the BM’s incredible collection of historical and contemporary graphic art.
Through this blog I have shared some of the most intriguing and often surprising works I came across as I moved through aspects of the collection. The British Museum Prints and Drawings Study Room is open to the public and anyone can request to view an artwork from the Prints and Drawings collection in this magnificent space.
“The fact – and this will seem to many unbelievable – that his paintings by no means equaled his superb engravings did a lot to damage his reputation.”[1] Constantijn Huygens, 1630 The term ‘virtuosity’ rarely fails to surface when discussing the graphic oeuvre of Dutch artist Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). Praised for his sheer technical brilliance, … Continue reading
“The artist produces scenes that are like sheets of stone, whether these be jagged cliff faces or crumbling stone structures. Ostensibly revealing broad vistas, Segers’ landscapes instead form a stony wall of impenetrable material, confounding view with picture plane. The viewer is not meant to enter these spaces.”[1] And yet enter we do, into Segers’ … Continue reading
Cristofano Robetta (1462 – 1535 after) is not exactly a well known name, even to those interested in the early history of western printmaking. Over-shadowed by luminaries of his era, print historians have invariably discussed the awkward and technically unrefined aspects of his work. They also point out its heavily derivative nature as Robetta freely … Continue reading
Baccio Baldini (c.1436–1487) is the elusive artist to whom these astrologically inspired engravings, created around 1464, are attributed. Titled The Planets, this series of seven prints reflect prevailing systems of knowledge that during the 15th century governed the way people viewed the world around them. Specifically, they refer to the Ptolemaic concept of the universe where … Continue reading
Visual Pursuits 