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| J.J. Grandville Plate 32 from Les Métamorphoses du Jour 1829 hand-colored lithograph British Museum |
"Satire showing a mole-headed man and a dog-headed boy, the former kneeling and holding a violin while his companion holds out a begging bowl as three smartly-dressed artists walk past them; the artists all sport mouse's heads and carry a picture frame, a violin case and a skull. . . ."
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| Corneille Jean-Antoine Seghers The Hanged Man (artist suicide in studio) ca. 1829-69 etching British Museum |
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| after Wilbraham Frederick Evelyn Liardet Skeleton Modeler, Skeleton Painter, and Skeleton Models ca. 1853-68 lithograph British Museum |
"From a group of twelve prints reproducing those drawn on a wall between Turnham Green and Brentford, engaged in various activities. . . . A note made by Thomas Hardy seems likely to relate to these images: "Wonderful sketches on a wall, when the people get up one morning at Turnham Green (skeletons &c it seems . . .); done by a young man out of employ, at a very early hour, to divert his mind from dwelling on his wretched situation (& to prevent suicide)."
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| attributed to Georg Pencz Mercury presiding over the Arts (from series, The Seven Planets) ca. 1530-50 woodcut British Museum |
"The god riding a chariot drawn by two cocks, with the caduceus in his left hand; below various arts and sciences performed in an arcade and the street of a town; scenes including an organ player, two merchants doing accounts, a sculptor, a painter at his easel, astronomers, physicians, and a goldsmith."
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| Koshiro Onchi Mannequin in the Studio 1936 color woodblock-print British Museum |
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| Thomas Burke after Angelica Kauffmann Portrait of Angelica Kauffmann in the character of Design listening to the Inspiration of Poetry 1787 etching British Museum |
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| Berthe Morisot Berthe Morisot drawing with her daughter Julie Manet 1889 drypoint British Museum |
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| Félix Bracquemond Portrait of Charles Daubigny with brushes and palette 1853 etching British Museum |
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| Archibald Keightley The private sitting room of painter Sir Thomas Lawrence 1830 etching, aquatint British Museum |
"Sir Thomas Lawrence in his sitting room decorated with casts of famous antiquities (Apollo Belvedere, Laocoön, Belvedere Torso), portrait heads of artist including John Flaxman (left of fireplace), Raphael and Michelangelo by Flaxman (either side of Laocoön) and drawings (one by Raphael beneath Laocoön and now at the Ashmolean Museum) and copies after heads in Leonardo's Last Supper on wall to right."
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| Axel Fridell The Old Chelsea Studio 1927 drypoint British Museum |
"This was the print Fridell was so proud of having sold to Campbell Dodgson in June 1927, presumably for the equivalent of sixty kroner, the price he quoted in a letter to Sweden at the time. The location was Fridell's studio at 44 Cheyne Walk, not far from Carlyle's house at no. 24."
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| Thomas Bewick Fable of Mercury and the Carver (in sculpture studio) ca. 1811-23 wood-engraving (book-illustration) British Museum |
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| Richard Doyle Painter contemplating portrait in the studio 1855 etching (book-illustration for The Newcomes by Thackeray) British Museum |
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| Honoré Daumier Daumier's stock-character Robert Macaire painting portrait of a horse while its owner converses with Bertrand (another stock-character) 1838 lithograph (for Le Charivari) British Museum |
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| Honoré Daumier Daumier (seated) interrupted by effusive admirer while preparing a print 1838 hand-colored lithograph (for Le Charivari) British Museum |
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| Avigdor Arikha View from the Press 2005 drypoint British Museum |
"The view is from Arikha's etching press to the library beyond. Arikha was given this small press in 1970 by his friend, Emile Najar, who was then Israel's ambassador to Belgium. In the corner above the press can be glimpsed Samuel Beckett, with glasses on forehead, a framed ink drawing of 1967"
– quoted texts are from curator's notes at the British Museum