Prints & Drawings

Exhibitions selected from the Crocker's collections of prints, drawings, and photographs are among the shows on view on a rotational basis in the Anne and Malcolm McHenry Works on Paper Study Center, located on the Museum's second floor. Due to the light-sensitive nature of works on paper, such works not on exhibition are kept in storage but are available to the public in the Center's study room by appointment. To schedule an appointment to view drawings and prints, please contact Curator William Breazeale at 916.808.5041.

The growing collection of approximately 1,500 master drawings includes the E. B. Crocker Collection, one of the finest early collections in the United States. With superb examples from the major European schools, its strengths include 16th- and 17th-century Italy, 17th-century Low Countries, 17th- and 18th-century France, and 18th- and 19th-century Germany.

The most famous drawings at the Crocker include Albrecht Dürer's Nude Woman with a Staff, Vittore Carpaccio's Meeting of the Pope and Doge in Ancona, François Boucher's Birth of Venus, and Jan Savery's Dodo Birds,. The catalogue A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum, available for purchase in the Museum Store, provides an introduction to the collection.

The print collection includes approximately 200 Old Master etchings and engravings, as well as a large variety of works by Californian and American artists.