Jean Forain, Théodore-Alexandre Steinlen, and others who reflect shifts in the approach to drawing in the modern era.

The full scope of drawing and its uses is represented, from preliminary sketches, compositional studies and figure studies to finished drawings. Especially rich in 17th-and 18th-century drawings, the exhibition illustrates the rise to dominance of the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture as one of the most dominant cultural and political institutions in Europe.

Organized from the Blanton Museum of Art’s impressive collection, the drawings have received fresh scholarly attention and will be examined in detail in the accompanying catalogue.