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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 prints and drawings in Germany. Its holdings encompass over 200,000 works, including drawings, prints, watercolours, miniatures, sketch books, posters, and illustrated books spanning seven centuries. A special focus of the collection lies on German, Netherlandish, and Italian prints and drawings from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, as well as on French and German art of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A steadily growing part of the collection are works on paper post 1945 and of the 21st century.

A room with a dark wooden floor, a white column, glass display cabinets along the wall containing art in passe-partouts set against a pink background, and above them, dark wooden shelves lined with books.

The New Cabinet, photo: Marcus Meyer Photography

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.

From May 2019 to April 2023, the collections of French and Japanese prints and drawings were digitally made accessible as part of a project funded by the DFG.

More Info

Digitization

Slide
Watercolour painting of a blue-purple flowering lily with green leaves

Albrecht Dürer, Blue Iris, ca. 1503

Watercolor and body color over brown ink (on two joinded sheets), 77,5 x 31,3 cm, Bequest Hieronymus Klugkist 1851, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Black-and-white illustration featuring a landscape, three solitary trees and a cloudy sky

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Three Trees, 1643

Etching, burin and dry point, 22 x 28,3 cm, Vermächtnis Johann Heinrich Albers 1856, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Historical illustration of a skull in shades of brown

Andrea Andreani, Skull, second half 16th century

Chiaroscuro woodcut from three blocks in beige, brown and black, 18,2 x 29,4 cm, Bequest Hermann Melchior Segelken 1885, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

A black-and-white, historical pen-and-ink drawing depicting unclothed women in various poses

Albrecht Dürer, Das Frauenbad, 1496

Pen and black ink, 23,1 x 23 cm, Bequest Hieronymos Klugkist 1851, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Grey-and-white drawing depicting people at a table, angels and columns

Paolo Caliari, called Il Veronese, Feast of the Holy Family, second half 16th century

Pen and grey ink and wash, over black chalk, white highlights, on blue paper, 39,7 x 53 cm, Acquired 1957, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Black-and-white illustration of a muscular naked man seen from behind, standing on a plinth bearing the inscription ‘Hercules Victor’; in the bottom right-hand corner are two small male heads

Hendrick Goltzius, Herkules Farnese, ca. 1592

Engraving, 41,6 x 30 cm, Acquired before 1860, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Black-and-white illustration of a battle scene featuring intertwined figures of people and horses

Gérard Edelinck, after P.P. Rubens, after Leonardo da Vinci, The Battle of Anghiari, 1657–1666

Engraving, 50 x 64 cm, Bequest Johann Heinrich Albers 1856, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Brownish drawing of a man with a long beard and a loose-fitting cloak

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Magician leaning on a Sphinx, ca. 1755

Pen and brown ink and wash, 26,3 x 17,9 cm, Acquired 1997, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Brownish drawing of a boy sleeping under a tree stump, with a bird perched on a branch. Below the picture is a wide border featuring a drawn axe.

Caspar David Friedrich, Sleeping Boy, 1802

Pen and black ink, brown wash over graphite, 18,1 x 11,6 cm, Bequest Johann Friedrich Lahmann 1937, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Colourful illustration featuring Japanese characters, a wooden bridge over a river, with mountains and houses in the background

Andô Hiroshige, Okazaki. Yahagi no bashi, ca. 1831/34

nishiki-e (Japanese woodblock print), ôban (bigger format), 24,7 x 37,7 cm, Acquired 1906, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Illustration of a red-haired woman in a black dress and a black hat, with a man with a yellow beard and a black top hat standing behind her, set against a grey-yellow background

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Divan Japonais, 1892/94

Color lithography, 80,6 x 60 cm / 81,3 x 62 cm, Bequest H. H. Meier 1903, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Abstract orange figures against a green background

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Reed Throwing Bathers, 1909 (Brücke-Portfolio 1910)

FColor woodcut from four blocks in black, red and two shades of green, 40 x 54 cm, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Black-and-white illustration showing a jumble of several people

Max Beckmann, The Night, 1919

Lithography, 62,2 x 82,2 cm, Gift Gallery Günther Franke 1957, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen

Black, elongated ink blots and streaks on a light background

Nam June Paik, Untitled (necktie drawing I), 1961

Ink on paper, 78 x 103,5 cm, Acquired with funds from the bequest of Thomas Wegner, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, © Nam June Paik Estate

Illustration of a woman’s head with large eyes, a yellow and red face and a hat, green and black hair, and light blue accents

Pablo Picasso, Woman in a Hat with Pompoms and a Printed Blouse, 1962

Linoleum cut, in five colors from one plate, 75,1 x 58,6 cm, Acquired 1963, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, © Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026

Simplified white child’s head with a black figure and red and blue accents

Lucebert (Lubertus Jacobus Swaanswijk), War and Child, 1994

Color serigraphy, 60,7 x 40,2 cm, Gift 2000, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2026

Delicate black-and-grey patterns, consisting of squares of varying sizes, on a light background

Nanne Meyer, Aerial View, 2001

Pencil, 75 x 105 cm, Acquired 2004, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen / Foto: Jens Ziehe

Black-and-white starscape on a wall

Ugo Rondinone, Stars, 2009

Lithography, 102 x 71 cm, Installationsansicht, Acquired with funds of the Gerrit Meyer and Eka Meyer-Lausch-Stiftung 2013, Kunsthalle Bremen – Der Kunstverein in Bremen / photo: Tobias Hübel, © Ugo Rondinone

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A view of the room with a table and wooden chairs; in the background, works on paper set against a dark blue background in wall display cabinets, with a wooden gallery containing books above them

The Old Cabinet, photo: Tobias Hübel

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