This display, featuring drawings by artists including Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Hendrick Goltzius, Rogier van der Weyden and Lucas van Leyden, is the culmination of a five-year research project on the Museum collection of early Netherlandish drawings. Around 120 drawings, dated from around 1430 to 1600, have been selected from more than 1,200 which have not been systematically researched or catalogued since AE Popham’s collection catalogue in 1932.

The show will highlight new findings that have come from combining curatorial and conservation expertise along with scientific analysis. The project, supported by a grant from the International Music and Art Foundation, charts the origins and development of drawing in the Low Countries. The breadth and quality of the Museum’s holdings in this field provide an opportunity to piece together this sometimes-fragmented narrative.

Unlike Italy, where the taste for collecting drawings in the 1500s ensured a higher number of drawings from the previous centuries were preserved, early Netherlandish works on paper are much rarer. Collections of comparable calibre to that at the British Museum are few. The selected drawings document the study of nature and the sensitive rendering of objects from life – both defining features of northern European art – as well as giving a unique insight into the working practices of early Netherlandish artists in the running of their studios and the training of their pupils.

Thematic displays will explore drawings which functioned as preparatory designs for works of art in other media including paintings, stained glass, tapestry series and prints.