Prints & Drawings

This print depicts the story of Mordecai, a main figure in the book of Esther in the Hebrew Bible. Here Rembrandt has shown Persia’s celebration of Mordecai’s victory over Haman. Haman was a vindictive court official. After Mordecai refused to prostrate himself before Haman, Haman decided to murder every Jewish exile as punishment. When Mordecai [...]

Rembrandt is better known for his paintings, but throughout his artistic career he created hundreds of prints. Often he would use the same imagery in his prints as in his paintings; like in this piece. Sometimes called “Rembrandt’s Mill” for an endearing legend about Rembrandt’s birth, The Windmill is an etched print. Rembrandt was the [...]

As a social realist who favored abstract modes of expression, Jacob Lawrence depicted the African American experience and the world around him with vivacity and energy. His images reflect his keen observation of the sights and sounds of Harlem. He used simplified forms, pattern, repetition, and bold color to express the mood and meaning of [...]

Christ Preaching exhibits Rembrandt’s willingness to experiment with different printmaking techniques later in his artistic career. He moved away from his earlier method of exclusively using a copper etching technique and has introduced engraving and drypoint intaglio methods. The strong lines of etching can be augmented with the precision of engraving and fluidity of drypoint [...]

Similar to his fascination with self-portraits, Rembrandt created many versions of the 13th Station of the Cross: Christ’s descent from the cross. This etching is a direct copy of his painting of the scene done in the same year at the request of Prince Frederick Henry of Orange. Also called the Deposition of Christ, the [...]

Kara Walker is a contemporary African American artist who received her MFA at the Rhode Island School of Design and currently teaches at Columbia University. Her work deals with issues of race, gender, sexuality, and violence. She is best known for black silhouettes like the one depicted here, but has also worked with sculpture and [...]

Clare Romano is an American printmaker notable for her fascination with landscape. She was especially moved by her first encounter with the Grand Canyon in 1975. She responded not only to the colours of the landscape and to intensity of the light, but also to the dramatic monolithic formation of the canyons. Her simplification and [...]

Josef Albers was a German-born, American painter known for his complex understanding of color and geometry. Albers was a student, then a professor at the Bauhaus craft and fine arts school. The Bauhaus was founded with the idea of creating a "total" work of art in which all art forms, including architecture, would eventually be [...]

Ernest Trova was a self-trained American surrealist, pop art painter, and sculptor. Trova’s most successful image was his Falling Man series which he created in both two and three dimensional media. Synthesizing post-painterly abstraction with own his own ancient brand of classicism, Trova arrived at a result that attracted immense interest. Images and sculptures of [...]

Chavez, an indigenous Mapuche Chilean, was a goat-herder as a child but later grew to fame for his prints. Chavez worked past his humble beginnings by attending University of Concepción and working nights. Later, he attended Pratt University in New York and the Art Institute of Chicago before settling in Germany. This print, translated as [...]