Kupferstich-Kabinett
(Collection of Prints, Drawings and
Photographs)

The Kupferstich-Kabinett (Collection of Prints, Drawings and Photographs) is one of the world’s most prominent art museums for drawings, printed graphics and photography. Its collection comprises over 500,000 works on paper by more than 11,000 artists of eight centuries.

The significance of the Kupferstich-Kabinett lies in the superb quality and uniqueness of the artistic drawings, watercolours and gouaches, the etchings, lithographs and copper engravings, the illustrated books and portfolios as well as the photographs that make up its collection. This “museum of masterworks” places world-famous drawings and graphics by artists ranging from Dürer, van Eyck, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Fragonard and Caspar David Friedrich to Toulouse-Lautrec, Picasso and Baselitz on view. Copper engravings by Schongauer and woodcuts by Cranach are to be found alongside rare examples from the history of artistic photography.

In changing special exhibitions presented in our own display rooms, works from the Cabinet’s abundant holdings are enhanced by loans from partner museums the world over. The study hall offers all visitors – laypersons and specialists alike – the opportunity to study the museum’s originals.

Since April 2004 the "new" Kupferstich-Kabinett presents its superb collection in the Dresden Royal Palace, in the very location in which it was established as one of the world’s oldest collections 450 years ago.