Graphic Art

The Russian Museum’s collection of Russian prints comprises around 80,000 works and is one of the most comprehensive collections of Russian printmaking. Spanning the period from the early eighteenth century to the present day, it includes individual prints, series and albums, book illustrations, caricatures, lubok prints, posters, geographical maps and playing cards, as well as a unique collection of metal and wood printing plates. The collection traces the development of virtually all the major printmaking techniques, from engraving, etching, woodcut and lithography to linocut and modern printing processes. It includes works by artists of the eighteenth to twentieth centuries, Russian avant-garde prints, Futurist books, Soviet posters, and graphic art of the Leningrad and Moscow schools. Of particular importance are the original printing plates, which offer an insight not only into the finished works but also into the process by which they were made.