The love of prints...

Since the invention of the first printing presses over five hundred years ago, collectors and connoisseurs have been able to own and appreciate the work of the world's greatest artists, such as Dürer, Mantegna, Rembrandt and Picasso to name but a few. These artists realised that prints would enable them to place their work in the hands of an audience that stretched well beyond any single patron or learned institution.

Prints themselves can take many forms - woodcuts, copper-plate engravings, etchings, lithographs - each with their own distinctive range of artistic possibilities. For those lucky enough to own prints they provide the opportunity to marvel at both the brilliance of the artist's imagination and the extraordinary skills of the print maker. Prints can possess their own fascinating story of how they came to be created, the artists, printmakers and publishers involved with their production, and even the owners that have cared for them over the centuries.

You can learn more about prints and print-makers at our blog page Les Quatre Vents.