The Department of Prints and Drawings was established in 1916 within the Arts Department of the Yugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts, as a Division of the Strossmayer Gallery. There the material gathered from diverse sources was collected. This museum institution was institutionalised after World War Two – in late 1948 and early 1949, when thanks to the after-war policy of cultural heritage protection, which was in force, gathering, organising and unifying artistic material according to the principle of homogeneity was made possible. Then the Valvasor Collection of the Archdiocese of Zagreb became a part thereof. The beginning of the official operation of the Department of Prints and Drawings is dated 1951. The Valvasor Collection of the Archdiocese of Zagreb, upon the owner’s request, became a part of the Metropolitan Library on Marulić Square in Zagreb in 1996.
Mirko Rački, The Mean and the Greedy (Hadrian V), 1911, pencil, gouache, no. 2767
The holdings of the Department of Prints and Drawings number approx. 20,000 units; they are divided in four collections:
- The Old Collection of the 19th Century (approx. 3,300 units) includes prints and drawings by international and Croatian artists from the period 15th–19th centuries (J. J. Klović, M. Rota Kolunić, A. Medulić, H. S. Beham, A. Aldegrewer, E. Riedinger, L. Kilian, J. Callot, Carraccis, G. B. Tiepolo, F. Chaureau, F. Piranesi, etc.);
- The Collection of the 20th and the 21st Centuries (approx. 13,000 units) includes prints and drawings by Croatian artists (J. Račić, M. Kraljević, O. Herman, V. Becić, Lj. Babić, T. Krizman, K. Hegedušić, M. Cl. Crnčić, N. Mašić, M. Trepše, V. Gecan, Z. Šulentić, O. Postružnik, J. Miše, S. Šohaj, I. Lovrenčić, F. Kulmer, E. Tomašević, J. Vaništa, M. Stančić, M. Šutej, E. Murtić, Z. Prica, I. Kožarić, D. Džamonja, Z Keser, B. Bućan, etc., and international artists (J Arp, A. Herbin, J. Albers, R. Mortensen, R. Canogar, G. Zigaina, B. Suhy, etc.);
- The Collection of Posters (approx. 3,200 units) by the most prominent Croatian artists / designers (B. Csikos, M. Cl. Crnčić, T. Krizman, Lj. Babić, S. Glumac, P. Gavranić, I. Picelj, M. Arsovski, B. Ljubičić, B. Bućan, etc.);
- The Collection of Print Matrices (approx. 500 items by Croatian print artists: M. Kraljević, M. Cl. Crnčić, T. Krizman, B. Šenoa, M. Trepše, etc.).
* Josip Račić, Standing Female Nude from the Back, 1905-06, charcoal, no. 2744
** Milan Steiner, Self-Portrait, 1918, charcoal, no. 6236