Drawing and Graphics

The collection of prints, drawings and bookplates in the Print Room of the Old Art Department amounts to ca. 8 thousand exhibits, dated from the 16th century to 1945. The majority of them are single works, but there are also albums, artistic illustrated publications and sketch books. They are created by European artists, mostly originating from German-speaking countries, as well, as from France, Low Countries, Italy and England. The collection includes also  single works by artists from other countries, among others, marine landscape by Ivan Aivazovsky, and over a dozen of works by artists from Far East.

The most precious group are 18th century drawings by the Tiepolo family of Venice – father  Giambattista and sons Giandomenico and Lorenzo. This collection, the largest in Poland, includes several figural compositions and numerous sketches of heads – drawings related to work on frescoes. Among drawings there is also a unique collection of eight sketch books by Szczecin’s representative of biedermeier – August Ludwig Most, painter and educator who rendered great service to the development of artistic culture in the capital of Pomerania, recording Pomeranian landscape and folk culture with pencil and paintbrush. The collection of German drawings includes great, interesting legacy: academic drawings and copies of classical artworks made in Rome by Johann Gottfried Niedlich, exotic landscapes by Eduard Hildebrandt, realistic Pomeranian views by Theodor Kugelmann, Art Nouveau figures by Friedrich Wittig, compositions and art déco sculpture projects by Joachim Utech from Białogard.

Second of the most precious groups are artistic graphics by outstanding German representatives of modern art streams, working in the second half of the 19th and first of the 20th century. The collections include prints by: Adolf Menzel, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt, Max Klinger, Max Pechstein, Alexander Kanoldt, Käthe Kollwitz, Ernst Barlach, Otto Holz, Alfred Kubin and less known, but very interesting: humorist Reinhold Nägele, landscapist Rudolf Grossmann or Post-Expressionist Conrad Felixmüller.

A precious collection are Dutch prints of varied topics, originating mainly from the 17th and 18th centuries. A catalogue of these prints is available on sale. Among their authors there are as valued artists, as mannerists Hendrik Goltzius, Jan Pietersz, Saenredami Aegidius Sadeler II, as well, as the author of realistic rural scenes Adrien van Ostade or landscapist of local land Anthonie Waterloo. This group includes particularly admirable reproduction prints based on paintings by the most outstanding masters: engravings by Jan Witdouc based on Crucifixion by Peter Paul Rubens or portraits by Pieter de Jode II based on Anthony van Dyck’s paintings.

In a collection of French prints, being presently arranged, originating from a period from the 16th to early 20th century, also multi-thematic, objects that stand out are: a biblical scene by Claude Mellan, Paris vedute by Jean II Marot, marine compositions based on Joseph Vernet's works, as well, as two groups of illustrations for famous great French Encyclopédie, edited in the second half of the 18th century by Denis Diderot and Jean d’Alembert and, from the same time, reproduction prints of paintings from French Royal Gallery. An ornament of the collection are caricatures by Honoré Daumier.

Less in number, collection of Italian prints includes 18th century album of views of Venice by Luca Carlevaris and prints by artists active in late 16th and 17th centuries: The Triumph of Bacchus by Martin Rota based on Raphael, View of Pont Neuf in Paris by Stefano della Bella, Saint Hieronymus by Pietro Testa, The Fisher by Giuseppe Maria Mitelli. The collection includes also several prints by famous 18th century vedute author, Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Among a small collection of English graphics, dominated by views, a series of colourful landscape aquatints deserves particular attention.

The collection of old German graphics consists mainly of pages with views from painting albums, portraits from lexicons, single pages from albums of artworks reproductions, book illustrations. A rarity is a large group of lithography works from reproduction album of Gothic art collection of Boisserée brothers, the “discoverers” of this art.

An interesting collection are 200 European bookplates from the turn of 19th and 20th centuries.

  • Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770), Męczeństwo św. Hipolita, nie datowany rysunek piórem w tuszu, lawowany
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  • Max Liebermann (1847–1935), Pejzaż znad Wannsee, 1926, litografia barwna
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  • Max Klinger (1857–1920), Trzej jeźdźcy z cyklu Intermezza, 1879-1881, akwaforta
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  • Alexander Kanoldt (1881–1939), Hiddensee IV, 1927, litografia
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  • Reinhold Nägele (1884–1972), Scena uliczna w Rotterdamie, 1911, akwaforta
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  • Aegidius Sadeler II (około 1570–1629), Jezus dźwigający krzyż, 1590, miedzioryt
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  • Jan Pietersz. Saenredam (1565/66–1607), Hołd Ceres, 1596, miedzioryt
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  • Adrien van Ostade (1610–1685), Gracze w tryktraka, 1682 akwaforta, sucha igła
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  • Claude Mellan (1598-1688), Bóg ukazuje się Mojżeszowi w krzewie gorejącym, 1663, miedzioryt
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