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Sir George Scharf and friends by Sir George Scharf lithograph, 1873	Archive Collection of Prints and Drawings Introduction Purpose Scope Access Collection holdings DCMS funded project to catalogue 18th and 19th century caricatures and portrait prints Project part-funded by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art to research late 17th and early 18th century mezzotints Introduction The Archive reference collection contains approximately 80,000 prints and drawings, including silhouettes, caricatures, and small groups of paintings, miniatures, medallions and related items. The reference collection owes its origins to the first Director, Sir George Scharf, who filled over two hundred sketchbooks with meticulous pencil drawings of portraits held in private collections and acquired large numbers of portrait prints in order to build up the iconographical holdings of the Gallery. These images were collected to provide visual evidence for the existence of portraits and to record the likenesses of specific people. Over the last 150 years the collection has grown into an unparalleled national iconography, covering five centuries of British portraiture and including a significant number of original portraits in a variety of media.
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron by Henry Hoppner Meyer, after George Henry Harlow stipple engraving, published 1816	Purpose The reference collection provides a rich and varied context for the primary collection. It records the process of making portraits through preparatory studies and working drawings, the production of enamel and miniature copies is documented by squared up drawings, and the vast number of prints help to demonstrate the market for printed reproductions of portraits. The collection also documents the wider more popular appeal of portraiture through popular prints, silhouettes and the work of enthusiastic and talented amateur artists. An alternative and altogether less reverential view of sitters, who are represented in the primary collection by conventional means, is achieved through the medium of caricature and satirical prints. The reference collection also contains engraved portraits of a great number of the lesser figures in British history and records many portraits that no longer exist or are untraceable. The print collection is described in more detail in: Jonathan Franklin 'Engravings collections at the National Portrait Gallery' Print Quarterly (December 1994), pp. 435-39.
Five Children of King Charles I published by Alexander Browne, after Sir Anthony Van Dyck mezzotint, circa 1684	Scope The collection contains several groups of portraits by significant 17th century print-makers, including etchings by Wenceslaus Hollar and a near complete set of line engravings by the important English engraver William Faithorne. Also well represented are early mezzotint printer-publishers. The mezzotint was developed during the latter part of the 17th century and has a particular association with portraiture. Amongst the Archive's substantial holdings are a very fine and near complete set of the published work of Alexander Browne and the most comprehensive single collection held in this country of prints by John Smith, who the leading exponent of the medium. The Archive has significant holdings of 18th and 19th century prints, amongst which are a large group of soft-ground etchings by William Daniell after portraits by George Dance. These complement original drawings by Dance and preparatory tracings by Daniell in the primary collection. The prolific Victorian lithographer Richard James Lane is represented by a substantial collection of portraits and figure studies, including a separate tinted set of lithographs after drawings by the amateur artist and dandy Count Alfred D'Orsay. Amongst the holdings of important 20th century prints are original etched portraits by Francis Dodd, Edgar Holloway and William Strang.
Frances d'Arblay ('Fanny Burney') by Charles Turner, after Edward Francesco Burney mezzotint, published 1840	The fashion for collecting portrait prints and extra-illustration, which began in the 18th century, is represented by several substantial sets, most notably by Granger's A Biographical History of England from Egbert the Great to the Revolution which was extra-illustrated by Dr William Fleming in the 19th century. This tradition continued into the 20th century and more recent compilations include The Diaries of Fanny Burney extra-illustrated by Frederick Leverton Harris and an illustrated edition of the Dictionary of National Biography assembled from the vast print collection of J.H. Macdonnell.
'A noble aiddecamp' (Charles Stanhope, 4th Earl of Harrington) by and published by Robert Dighton Jr hand-coloured etching, published June 1804	The collection is rich in satirical prints and caricatures, outstanding amongst which are a fine collection of hand-coloured etchings by James Gillray and an album of political satires by his contemporary James Sayers. A less harsh view of the Regency period is provided by the large number of profile portraits produced by members of the Dighton family, one of the most notable artistic families of the period. The Archive & Library holds sets of prints published in a number of 19th century satirical magazines, including a near complete set of the little known The Period and an extensive collection of prints from Vanity Fair. These are complemented by several important late 19th and 20th century collections of drawings, which include pen and ink caricatures by Harry Furniss and character studies by Sir Leslie Ward (who worked for Vanity Fair under the name 'Spy'). Both artists are represented in the primary collection. The Archive also holds the sketchbooks and working drawings of the 20th century caricaturist Powis Evans (better known as 'Quiz') and a group of original cartoons by Sir Bernard Partridge that he drew for Punch between 1902 and 1942. Other notable 20th century cartoonists and illustrators represented in the collection include Anthony Wysard and Robert Sherriffs. Amongst the drawings are several collections that document the working practices of artists. These include an important group of squared up pencil drawings by the early 19th century enamellist Henry Bone, two 1930s albums of ephemera covered in impromptu portrait sketches by the artist Fred Roe, and the 'television sketchbooks' that Cecil Beaton kept towards the end of his life. The renowned Victorian amateur painter Louisa, 3rd Marchioness of Waterford, is represented by a small watercolour sketchbook that depicts domestic scenes at Highcliffe Castle. This is complemented by a group of oil portraits painted by Rachel ('Ray') Strachey during the 1930s that depict friends and family from the Bloomsbury group.
Tallulah Bankhead by Hubert Leslie silhouette, 1925	The popularity of silhouettes during the 19th century is represented by a small but select collection that includes examples cut by the important French silhouette artist Augustin Edouart, who travelled extensively around Britain and the United States. 20th century holdings include a collection of full-length silhouettes by Hubert Leslie, one of the most prolific cut-paper artists during the first half of the century and who worked on Brighton's West Pier between the wars.
King Edward by Unknown artist metal cast	Other forms of portraiture represented in the reference collection reflect the diversity of media that has been used to carry a likeness, and include medals, miniatures, seals, medallions and death masks. Of particular interest amongst these are two sets of medals depicting prominent artists and architects, which were commissioned by the Art Union in the 19th century for distribution to its members. The collection also includes a small group of mid-20th century plaster cartoon figures that were given the name 'sculptoons' by their maker Geoffrey Davien.
Anthony Wedgwood ('Tony') Benn by Humphrey Ocean pen, 1996	Access The reference collection is housed in our Orange Street building and can be accessed by appointment in the Heinz Archive and Library. Approximately 21,000 miscellaneous loose engravings and drawings are arranged alphabetically by sitter name. The majority of these have been indexed in the Public Study Room and approximately half of them have been catalogued on to the Gallery's collections database which can be searched on our website. The remainder of the collection comprises discrete groups of portraits or named collections, including bound albums and portfolios, that relate to a particular artist or subject. Approximately three-quarters of these have been indexed by sitter in the Public Study Room and over twenty discrete collections have been catalogued on to the Gallery's collections database which can be searched on our website. The Collections holdings link above gives more information about the main groups of portraits contained in the reference collection and the DCMS funded project link lists the collections that are currently being catalogued with support from the Department of Media Culture & Sport. For information about our project to research late 17th and early 18th century mezzotint production in London please go to the link for the Paul Mellon Centre part-funded project.

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