Prints
We aspire to promote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledges and cultures to the diverse University community and beyond with respect and sensitivity. We are committed to making our collections discoverable and collaborating with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through continuous work, engagement and learning. More information
The Print Collection includes approximately 9,000 individual works of art, encompassing prints (engravings, woodcuts etc.) and print albums, drawings, paintings, tools and books. The majority of the collection is European, featuring renowned artists as Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt and William Hogarth. The collection is representative of Western printmaking practitioners and techniques (relief, intaglio and planographic) from the 15th to the 19th century, but also includes examples from the 20th and 21st century.
The collection was first established in 1959 through a gift by Dr John Orde Poynton of approximately 3,700 Old Master prints dating from 1460 to 1850. The important Sadeler albums, collected by Elizabeth Seymour Percy Northumberland, were purchased in 1962. The collection was further enhanced in 1964 with Harold Wright’s bequest of half his Lionel Lindsay print collection and prints by Lindsay’s British contemporaries. In 1995 Dr Pierre Gorman gifted his collection of prints relating to Cambridge. In recent years, the collection has begun to develop a collection of Indigenous Australian prints and continues to grow in scope and depth. The primary role of the collection is as a rich resource for teaching, research and exhibition.
The collections are accessible via the Baillieu Library Reading Room.