Department of Prints and Drawings

A treasure trove of art on paper

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.

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.

Learn more about digital access to the Department of Prints and Drawings here.

Highlights

from more than 200,000 drawings and printed works

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

**Max Beckmann, *The Night*, 1919**
Lithograph, ca. 55,3 x 69,8 / 62,2 x 82,2 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Karen Blindow, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

**Nam June Paik, *Untitled (Tie Drawing I)*, 1961**
Ink on paper, 78 x 103,5 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Lars Lohrisch, © Nam June Paik Estate

**Pablo Picasso,** **Portrait of a Woman with a Pompom Hat and Printed Blouse, 1962**
Linocut, five colors on one plate, 62,9 x 49,5 cm / 75,1 x 58,6 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Lars Lohrisch, © Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

**Lucebert (actually Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk), *War and the Child*, 1994**
Colour silkscreen print, 51,5 x 33,2 cm / 60,7 x 40,2 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Lars Lohrisch, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017

**Nanne Meyer, *Aerial View*, 2001**
Pencil, 75 x 105 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Jens Ziehe

**Ugo Rondinone, *Stars*, 2009**
Lithograph, 98 x 67 cm, Installation view, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, Department of Prints and Drawings / photo: Tobias Hübel, © Ugo Rondinone

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The Department of Prints and Drawings is a member of the Netzwerk Graphische Sammlungen

Contact us:

Verwaltung Kupferstichkabinett (Thomas Schrader)

+49 (0)421 - 32 908 460

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