Antoine Watteau, Two Studies of the Head and Shoulders of a Little Girl, ca. 1717-1718

New York, The Morgan Library & Museum, 110116, I, 278b

This image: https://www.themorgan.org/drawings/item/110116

So often I’ve heard people say “I prefer the drawing to the finished piece!”. Why might that be…?

The first art academy was founded in Florence in the sixteenth century. Its purpose was to train a new generation of artists and therefore preserve the city’s creative exceptionalism. Its schools only taught drawing, and this set the precedent. The seventeenth century saw the establishment of the Académie française, with its school, the École des Beaux-Arts. It too only taught drawing. In fact, it wasn’t until the last half of the nineteenth century that Europe’s great academies taught painting at all.

So what was the importance of draughtsmanship?

We’ll let you decide, as we sample the master drawings of four centuries, traditionally separated into four categories: Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, and Modern. From charcoal to silverpoint, to trois crayons, we’ll sample the very best of the best.

RJW F2515 Online course (via Zoom)

4 weeks, Monday 14 May - Monday 11 June (incl., with half-term break on 28 May).

£60 (individual registration); £108 (for two people sharing one screen).