Our events are recorded and on-demand to ticket holders for one month. Proceeds from ticket sales benefit UK museums, galleries and other arts-based organisations.
Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of an unknown young woman, c. 1435-40. Trustees of the British Museum.
In the 1400s and 1500s, the Low Countries were a powerhouse of artistic innovation. This was a transformative period for Netherlandish drawings, as they evolved from preparatory studies to works of art in their own right.
Join Dr Olenka Horbatsch, British Museum curator of Dutch, Flemish and German prints and drawings, for an illuminating talk on this exhibition at the British Museum. Featuring around 120 works by renowned artists including Rogier van der Weyden, Lucas van Leyden, Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Hendrick Goltzius, bringing together some of the best and most important Netherlandish drawings and charting the development of drawing in the Low Countries (present-day Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands) before 1600.
Early Netherlandish drawings are extremely rare, made as functional objects in the workshop and not typically retained. Drawings were central to the design and production of works of art in different media, including tapestries, paintings, stained glass and prints – and surviving examples shed light on the creativity and collaboration of Netherlandish artists.
Early Netherlandish drawings at the British Museum is a free exhibition running from 16 April to 20 September 2026.
This is an online event hosted on Zoom which can be watched live with Q&A, or on-demand for one month afterwards. You will receive your link to access the event in your email confirmation and the on-demand link after the event ends.