Tate owns many thousands of drawings as part of the national collections of historic British and international modern art. They complement the national collections of drawings and prints in the British Museum, and of watercolours in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

The largest group of drawings comes from the Turner Bequest. This includes over thirty thousand pencil drawings and watercolours, many in sketchbooks, left in the studio of the landscape artist JMW Turner at his death in 1851. You can see some examples of Turner's drawings in this display; there are more upstairs in the Colour and Line display (room T10).

Many other important drawings were added to the Tate Collection in 1996, when Tate acquired the collection of Paul Oppé, a distinguished scholar of drawing and watercolour.

In addition, Tate has collected a wide range of drawings from many sources, including contemporary artists who work in ambitious and innovative ways. As well as drawings intended as independent works of art, there are working drawings, such as designs for paintings, book illustrations or sculpture, and studies from nature, architecture and the human figure.