Skip to Main Content

French Special Collections: Strachan Collection

Strachan Collection

From the 20th century, the Library has a fascinating collection of livres d’artiste, presented in 1987 by Walter Strachan. The collection is made up of books and part-books displaying the work of artists such as Matisse, Chagall and Picasso, picked up from the workshops of printers in Paris after the Second World War.  In Oxford, similar collections are found at St John's College, the Ashmolean Museum (mainly 20th century French livres d'artiste, part of the Christopher Hewett collection), the Bodleian Library, and New College. See also Giles Barber & Eunice Martin, French livres d'artiste in Oxford University collections, catalogue of an exhibition, 7 October-14 December 1996, Oxford, Bodleian Library, 1996, ISBN 1851240497.