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Early Netherlandish drawings exhibition at the British Museum displays 110 rare artworks

  • Writer: maxwell museums
    maxwell museums
  • 6 days ago
  • 3 min read

Updated: 5 days ago

The British Museum has announced Early Netherlandish drawings, a new exhibition of northern-European artworks on paper that were made over 400 years ago. It will open on 16 April and run until 20 September 2026.


110 rare works will feature in the show that explores the significant period in European art where drawings made in the Low Countries became collectible and sought after in their own right.


Some of the artists displayed include Rogier van der Weyden, Lucas van Leyden, Pieter Bruegel the elder, and Hendrick Goltzius. There'll also be much lesser-known masters and some anonymous works.


Drawing of medieval scene with people rummaging through bags and objects. One person rests on sacks. Browns and earth tones dominate. Painting on wall.
'Elck' or 'Everyman' study for a print, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1558 © The Trustees of the British Museum

The drawings are all sourced from the British Museum’s own collection. And at the core of the exhibition will be the findings of a five-year research project which has been the first in-depth study into this collection in nearly a century.


Visitors will see the works displayed chronologically, as well as some key thematic sections. The show will cover a 200 year period from the 1400s and 1500s, a time when the Low Countries (present day Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) were a powerhouse of artistic innovation. 



Why are Netherlandish drawings so rare?


Pre-1600 drawings from this region are comparatively rare.


The British Museum's collection features around 1,200 of them, making it one of the most important Netherlandish drawings collections in the world.


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The rarity is due to the fact that drawings were made as functional objects in an artists’ workshop and so were not typically retained. They were not seen as artworks in their own right. 


This was unlike Italy or the German-speaking lands, where the taste for collecting drawings in the 1500s ensured the survival of a higher number of works from this period. 


But drawings were central to the design and production of works of art in different media at this time, including for tapestries, paintings, stained glass and prints. What little that does survive sheds light on the creativity and collaboration of Netherlandish artists, as well as artistic techniques, style and studio practice.



It is because of the British Museum’s unparalleled breadth and quality of its collection that this sometimes-fragmented narrative can be explored.



What will visitors see in Early Netherlandish drawings?


The exhibition will be staged in Room 90 at the British Museum, their dedicated space to show their collection of prints, drawings and works on paper. Like many exhibitions hosted in this gallery, Early Netherlandish drawings will be free to visit.


Displays will examine the function of drawings in the workshop, and their role in the design and production of paintings, tapestries, painted glass, sculpture and prints. 


Drawing of ancient ruins with figures working in the foreground. A divine figure in the sky above emits rays. Sepia tones create a mystic mood.
Ruins with the Vulcan's forge beneath an arch, Maarten van Heemskerck, 1538 © The Trustees of the British Museum

Thematic displays will highlight new subjects which were introduced into Netherlandish drawings during this period, including landscapes, proverbs and a local iteration of the antique style, spurred by contact with Italy.



"New findings about this marvellous group of drawings"

  “Drawings are often the first and most intimate records of expression” said the exhibition’s curator Olenka Horbatsch. “They are vital to understanding the art of this period." 

 

Horbatsch said that by “bringing together some of the best and most important Netherlandish drawings, and presenting them in context, we can trace the history of drawings in this region during this transformative time.”



Hugo Chapman, Simon Sainsbury Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, added that the show and its accompanying catalogue are the “fruits of a five-year collaborative project of curators, conservators and scientists to research the British Museum's collection of Netherlandish drawings 1400-1600.”

 

The research has revealed “new information about how the drawings were made, their function and in some cases clarified who made them. 


“This part of the Museum's graphic holdings had not been systematically studied since the 1930s so the chance to present new findings about this marvellous group of drawings is hugely exciting.”


Early Netherlandish drawings is one of a number of fascinating British Museum exhibitions this year, the most anticipated of which is the blockbuster loan of the Bayeux Tapestry.


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