Printed with fine black lines on cream-white paper, a man wearing a knee-length tunic and reading from a piece of unfolded paper faces our right against a mostly blank background in this vertical engraving. The man's right shoulder, closer to us, is angled in a way that suggests his torso is turned slightly away from us even though his feet and face are shown in profile. A narrow wreath is almost lost in his dense curls, and he has a straight nose and prominent chin. His fur-lined tunic is belted low across his hips, and a dagger hangs from his belt. His pointed clog-like shoes seem to slip onto his feet like sandals, and he stands on a grassy field in an otherwise empty space. Creases in the paper he holds suggests it had been folded into nine sections.
Master of the Playing Cards, A Poet Reading, 1430s, engraving on laid paper, Gift of Ladislaus and Beatrix von Hoffmann, 1999.26.1

Prints

Printmaking has played a key role in spreading artistic styles, scientific diagrams, and ideas around the world. A printmaker first creates a design on a matrix—a surface often made of metal, wood, or stone. They then apply ink and press paper or fabric to the matrix, transferring the design. This process can be repeated, creating multiple works.

  • Printed with fine black lines on cream-white paper, a man wearing a knee-length tunic and reading from a piece of unfolded paper faces our right against a mostly blank background in this vertical engraving. The man's right shoulder, closer to us, is angled in a way that suggests his torso is turned slightly away from us even though his feet and face are shown in profile. A narrow wreath is almost lost in his dense curls, and he has a straight nose and prominent chin. His fur-lined tunic is belted low across his hips, and a dagger hangs from his belt. His pointed clog-like shoes seem to slip onto his feet like sandals, and he stands on a grassy field in an otherwise empty space. Creases in the paper he holds suggests it had been folded into nine sections.
  • This print features a complex network of swirling lines, arcs, and splatters across the pale blue canvas. The swirling lines and splashes are in shades of orange, yellow, pink, green, blue, and purple. There are also thin grids of black lines in the center from which many of the colorful swirls seem to emerge.
  • Two women, one holding a baby on her lap, sit on the long bench seat of an omnibus in this vertical, colored print. The women and their full skirts take up almost the width of the composition against the peacock-blue bench, which extends off both sides. The women and baby’s skin are the color of the cream-white paper. The woman to our left wears a tan-colored, high-collared dress, gloves, and hat. She looks off to our right, almost in profile. She has a round face and the hint of a double chin. One gloved hand rests on a cane. The other woman holds the baby and tips her head down toward the child. That second woman wears a tea rose-pink dress and a hat with areas of darker pink, fern green, and straw yellow. Both women’s black hair is pulled up under their hats. The baby’s ruffled white bonnet, blousy garment, stockings, and shoes are also the white of the paper, though the hair is picked out with yellow, the lips with pink, and the ball held in one hand with brown. The structure of the women’s bodices, puffy long sleeves, and long skirts as well as the baby’s clothing are outlined in black. A row of windows behind them, parallel to the top of the bench, open onto an arched bridge spanning a river with boats. To our left, the sandy water’s edge is lined with spruce green trees. Back inside, the panel behind the women’s legs is peanut brown, and the top of the omnibus is muted mauve purple. A mark with an oval, or a mirrored C, over an uppercase M, is stamped in royal blue at the bottom center of the print. The sheet is inscribed with graphite across the right half of the bottom margin. Text reads, “Edition de 25 épreuves Imprimée par l’artiste et M. Leroy Mary Cassatt."
  • Printed with tones of black, gray, and smoky gray, two oversized hands reach out of an ocean and hold up a masted ship in this horizontal etching, aquatint, and drypoint. Closer to us, the black silhouette of a woman sinks under the surface of the water, face down with her arms thrust back and her mouth gaping open. Her features are exaggeratedly rounded to reference stereotypes historically connected with Black and African people. The wave surges to our left, and the giant hands lift the boat just left of center of the composition. Small in scale, two silhouetted people stand on a flat area to the left. One wears a brimmed, flat-topped hat, a coat with tails, and holds up a tool, perhaps a hoe. The other wears a spiky headdress and skirt and holds up a stalk of sugar cane. The sky is pale gray to either side of a plume of white and a black void with jagged edges, which spreads like a seeping stain down the middle of the sky. Under the image and across the bottom of the page, the artist wrote “A.P. VI/VIII” to the left and “KW 2010” to the right lightly in graphite.
  • In this print, swirling lines and circular shapes create a dynamic composition. A large white silhouette of a person is in the center, turned on their side with their legs up to their chest and their back to us. The person appears to be clutching a fish-like object behind their back. They have no visible hair or clothing. Surrounding the silhouette is a background made up of swirling black and gray lines against a dark gray background. Upon closer inspection, several mask-like shapes that resemble faces or heads become visible, each surrounded by swirling ripples that suggest they are floating under water. Most of these shapes are a dark gray color similar to the background, but the one near the top left corner has white eyes and one white hand, and the one near the top right corner has white eyes and white skin with a dark flower-like shape on their forehead. The background also contains a faint pattern of overlapping scales.
  • This is a black and white print of a woman shown from the waist up, her body facing us and her head turned to the right. She is holding a stick or the end of a tool in front of her with both hands. The woman has prominent cheekbones, a long nose, deep-set eyes, and lips set in a neutral expression. Her skin is mostly dark, with some small while lines providing highlights and texture. She wears a white headscarf tied at the back and an apron over a long-sleeved striped shirt or dress. She has small circular earrings. The background mostly black, with two areas of thin, zigzagging lines behind the woman's head.
  • We look down onto a shadowy stage with a ballerina and a man in this black and white work on paper. The man stands in the lower left corner of the composition wearing a knee-length jacket and resting his wrists on a tall stick in front of his body. Though his face and head are lost in deep shadow, it seems that he looks toward the ballerina to our right. Up on her toes en pointe, her body faces us but her arms are raised and angled toward the upper left corner of the composition. She turns her upper torso and head to gaze in the direction of her hands. Lighting comes from the front edge of the curving stage and illuminates the man’s pants and undersides of his arms, the dancer’s legs, tutu, and face, and the front part of the stage. The space behind the people is lost in shadow but is marked by strokes and smudges. In the upper left corner the names of the artists are scratched onto the ink that had coated the surface of the printing plate: “Lepic” and “Degas.”

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Printed with black lines on cream-white paper, a rhinoceros facing our right in profile fills this horizontal woodcut. The rhinoceros’s horn touches the border to the right and its hindquarters the left. Its left foot, farther from us, stands slightly ahead of its right hoof. Its front feet are close together and its head is lowered. Chunky, armor-like plates covering its body are patterned in some areas, especially on its legs and belly, with rings and dots, creating a mottled effect. The skin on its legs is scaly like a fish or reptile. A short, twisted, unicorn-like horn grows from between its shoulders, and the animal’s lower lip and the ear we see is fuzzy with short hairs. Near the upper right, in the corner near the animal's shoulders, the print is inscribed, “1515 RHINOCERVS.” Below, the artist’s initials appear as a monogram, with an upper case D tucked within the legs of an A. Five rows of tightly spaced German writing runs across the top edge of the paper, above the single-line border framing the animal. It reads, "Nach Christus gepurt. 1513. Jar. Adi. 1. May. Hat man dem groszmechtigen Kunig von Portugall Emanuell gen Lysabona pracht ausz India ein sollich lebendig Thier. Das nennen sie Rhinocerus. Das ist hye mit aller seiner gestalt Abconderfet. Es hat ein farb wie ein gespreckelte Schildtkrot. Und ist von dicken Schalen uberlegt fast fest. Und ist in der grösz als der Helfandt Aber nydertrechtiger von paynen und fast werhafftig. Es hat ein scharff starck Horn vorn auff der nasen Das Begyndt es albeg zu werzen wo es Bey staynen ist. Das dosig Thier ist des Helffantz todt feyndt. Der Helffandt furcht es fast ubel dann wo es In ankumbt so laufft Im das Thier mit dem kopff zwischen dye fordern payn und reyst den Helffandt unden am pauch auff un erwürgt In des mag er sich nit erwern. Dann das Thier ist also gewapent das Im der Helffandt nichts kan thun. Sie sagen auch das der Rhynocerus Schnell Fraydig und Listig sey."

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At a time when few Europeans had ever seen a rhinoceros, Albrecht Dürer seized the moment after the king of Portugal received a rhino as a gift.

Elizabeth Catlett in her studio, 1942

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This print shows a stylized blue vase holding various rounded fruits, including what appears to be an apple, a peach, and a lime. There are also two dark green leaf-like shapes. Above the vase, two fruits are floating, one that looks like a lemon and one that is round and tan. The blue vase has a wavy rim and a narrow base. The background is pale blue.

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Because drawings are damaged with exposure to light, we are unable to keep them on permanent display. Anyone can make an appointment to see prints in our collection, however, by contacting our study rooms.

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A crowned, bearded man sits facing us on a throne, and he holds a sword and orb in this vertical drawing, which was made using black ink on parchment-colored paper. A three-peaked, jeweled crown nestles in a twisted turban on the man’s head. He faces us but his eyes look to our right, and he has a long, hooked nose and flowing hair and beard. A band of ornate jewels could be a collar resting over his shoulders and on his chest, or it could be that the edge of his robe is elaborately decorated. His robe has voluminous, flowing long sleeves and his garment is decorated with bands of jewels and fringe at the shoulders, hem, and down the front. His left hand, on our right, rests on a round orb about the size of an orange, and he holds the hilt of a jewel-encrusted sword upright with his other hand so the tip of the sword rests on the ground. The artist signed the work with his initials at the bottom center: “AD.”

Drawing

Nearly every artist makes drawings at some point. Some use them as a way of thinking, jotting ideas down as quickly as they occur. Such rough sketches can offer fascinating glimpses into the artist’s imagination or their process. Meanwhile, many artists make elaborate drawings as finished works.

Comics

Did you know that we have comics in our collection? Discover artists who have both been inspired by, and created, these graphic stories.