The Department of Prints and Drawings at the Kunsthalle Bremen is one of the most important collections of graphic works in Germany. Its holdings encompass over 220,000 works, including drawings, prints, watercolours, miniatures, sketch books, posters, and artistically illustrated books from seven centuries. A special focus of the collection is on drawings and prints of the German, Netherlandish, and Italian schools from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, as well as on French and German art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
The Old Cabinet, photo: Karen Blindow
Viewing Times
Tues 10 am - 4 pm and by appointment
Works on paper are especially sensitive to light. For this reason, they are kept in closed portfolios, boxes, and cabinets and can only be presented in temporary exhibitions lasting three months. Academic catalogues and the Kunsthalle Bremen’s – future – online database will make selected works in the collection available on a permanent basis.
Works can be presented for viewing in the Old Cabinet, which was set up in 1902, on Tuesdays between 10 am and 4 pm or by appointment. Please contact our collection curators at +49 (0)421 - 32 908 460 or click on the contact form under "Ansprechpartner*innen" at the bottom of the page.
Upon prior arrangement, objects from the Department of Prints and Drawings can be made available in the Cabinet for teaching purposes. If you are an interested, please contact us beforehand to set a date.
Digital Accessibility
The Kunsthalle Bremen realizes an extensive project to make the entire collection of the Department of Prints and Drawings accessible digitally. Works on paper will be entered into the Kunsthalle’s existing public online database and published successively. The long-term plan is to integrate the graphic collections of various national and international museums into a common portal to allow access to all the holdings in one place.
This project is supported by the Waldemar Koch Stiftung.
From 2017 till 2020, the extensive collection of fifteenth and sixteenth-century German and Netherlandish printed works and drawings from the Klugkist Collection were digitized, funded by the BMBF. The DFG project for digital coverage of French and Japanese prints and drawings has been running since May 2019.
The Department of Prints and Drawings was the source and the heart of the collection of the Kunstverein in Bremen, which was founded in 1823. In the beginning, the few members met regularly every week to view art and discuss printed works. The purpose of the collection was more to provide a place of ‘ideal enjoyment’‚ to ‘view goods works of art together’ than to present instructive lectures, as the board described in their 1901/02 annual report.
In the nineteenth century, large private bequests laid the foundation for the outstanding quality of the Bremen holdings: Hieronymus Klugkist bequeathed printed works and watercolours by Albrecht Dürer to the Kunstverein in 1851, including:
Albrecht Dürer, Blue Flag Iris, c. 1503 Watercolour, gouache, pen (two sheets adhered together), 77,5 x 31,3 cm, Klugkist Bequest 1851, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Lars Lohrisch
In 1856, Johann Heinrich Albers bequeathed 15,000 printed works to the Department of Prints and Drawings, including valuable etchings by Rembrandt such as:
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, The Three Trees, 1643 Etching with drypoint and engraving, Johann Heinrich Albers Bequest 1856, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Die Kulturgutscanner-Rosenau
In 1885, the Kunsthalle received 6,000 coloured Italian woodcuts from Melchior Hermann Segelken and in 1905 over 100,000 prints by Goya, Munch, Menzel, Klinger, Toulouse-Lautrec and others from H.H. Meier. To this day, the Department of Prints and Drawings remains indebted to its benefactors and patrons for other donations, bequests, and acquisitions.
Andô Hiroshige, Okazaki. Yahagi no bashi (sheet 39 from the series The 53 Stations along the Tôkaidô, 38th Station), c. 1831/34 nishiki-e (colour woodblock print), ôban (large format), 23 x 35 cm/ 24,7 x 37,7 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Die Kulturgutscanner-Rosenau
Following the evacuation of numerous works in 1943 during the war, the holdings of the Kunsthalle suffered painful losses. Around 1,500 drawings and over 6,000 prints are still missing. However, many works have been returned, including:
Albrecht Dürer, The Women’s Bath, 1496 Pen in black ink, 23,1 x 23 cm, Klugkist Bequest 1851, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Karen Blindow
More highlights from the Department of Prints and Drawings collection:
Paolo Caliari, gen. Il Veronese, Die Bewirtung der heiligen Familie Feder in Grau und Schwarz, grau laviert, weiß gehöht, über schwarzer Kreide, auf graublau getöntem Papier, 39,7 x 53 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Lars Lohrisch
Hendrick Goltzius, The Farnese Heracles, c. 1592 Copperplate engraving, 41,6 x 30 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Karen Blindow
Gérard Edelinck, Die Anghiari-Schlacht, 1657–1666 after a drawing by Peter Paul Rubens after the lost fresco by Leonardo da Vinci, copperplate engraving, 50 x 64 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Die Kulturgutscanner-Rosenau
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Oriental Magician, Leaning against a Sphinx, c. 1755 Pen and brush washed in brown and light brown, 26,3 x 17,9 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings/ photo: Lars Lohrisch
Caspar David Friedrich, Boy Sleeping, 1802 Pencil, brush in brown, pen in black and brown ink, 18,1 x 11,6 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings/ photo: Lars Lohrisch
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Divan Japonais, 1892/94 Colour lithograph, 80,6 x 60 cm / 81,3 x 62 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Lars Lohrisch
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Bathers Throwing Reeds, 1909 published in the 5th annual portfolio of Die Brücke, 1910, colour woodcut (print using three woodblocks, in black, red, and green), 20 x 29 cm / 40 x 54 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Lars Lohrisch
Nanne Meyer, Aerial View, 2001 Pencil, 75 x 105 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Jens Ziehe
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