The collection of the Graphic Art and Drawings Section, separated in 1975 from the former Art Department, is one of the most numerous sets of the National Museum in Lublin. They include over 10,000 exhibits on paper by Polish and foreign artists, which were created from the 17th century to modern times. They include graphics, drawings, watercolours, pastels, as well as graphic matrices.
The extensive complex of objects consists of views of Lublin and the Lublin region, which are valuable iconographic material for sources of knowledge about the past of the city and the region, both in the architectural, topographic and social sense. The oldest objects are the 17th and 18th century engravings with views of Lublin by A. Hogenberg, G. Bodenehr and J. Maszewski. Among the 19th-century images of the city, graphics by L. Urmowski, L. Horwart, and A. Lerue deserve attention. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Lublin and the region were portrayed by, among others: M. E. Andriolli, J. Chełmoński, F. K. Dietrich, W. Gerson, A. Gierymski, L. Wyczółkowski.
In the collection of an iconographic nature, representative images of historical figures by, among others, S. della Bella, K. de La Haye, J. Falck, J. F. Piwarski, deserve attention.
The extensive group of works consists of collections of graphics and drawings from the end of the 19th and 20th centuries, which reflect various tendencies and styles of artistic imaging, ranging from pencil sketches by J. Matejko, J. Brandt and W. Czachórski, through watercolour studies by P. Michałowski, sketches and graphics by J. Pankiewicz, to an extensive collection of works by Young Polish artists – T. Axentowicz, J. Fałat, K. Sichulski, S. Wyspiański, L. Wyczółkowski, S. I. Witkiewicz.
The presence of the most outstanding Polish contemporary graphic artists in the museum’s collection was significantly expanded thanks to the donation of I. Hochman and the Lublin-based artist T. Mysłowski, who donated to the Museum an extensive collection of works depicting important phenomena in Polish and world graphics in the 20th and 21st centuries.
