October: Lord Fitzwilliam's Print Collection

For October's Object of the Month we are cheating slightly, in that it’s not one object, but many. We walk through the Fitzwilliam’s extensive collection of print albums and find out why they are so special and unique to the world.

The Museum’s founder, Lord Fitzwilliam, was an enthusiastic collector of prints. In his lifetime he amassed around 40,000 loose impressions and devoted significant time and energy arranging them into albums of varying sizes to keep on the shelves of his library. His collection reflects his broad taste, ranging from etchings by Rembrandt to works by other highly skilled but less fashionable printmakers. The exhibition 'An Amateur's Passion: Lord Fitzwilliam's print collection' (on show until 29 January) looks at what interested Fitzwilliam most in acquiring and ordering his print collection and features examples of his albums, rarely seen in public but offering a fascinating insight into the mind of a late 18th century collector.

11 October 2016