Storied Past: Four Centuries of French Drawings, from the Blanton Museum of Art

The Blanton Museum of Art’s collection of French drawings is less well known than its other collections, and this title is the first to publish more than 75 works in a variety of media ranging over the span of four centuries. Preliminary sketches, fully developed compositional studies, figure studies, and finished drawings show the breadth of the medium.

The collection has a strong series of Italianate examples—many never before published, from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries when the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture was evolving into one of the dominant cultural and political institutions in Europe.

Three engaging essays probe further into the collection to offer deeper comprehension and scholarship of this extensive and wide-ranging acquisition. The informative studies bring to light a fascinating background as well as the journey to more present-day methods and styles.