The complete catalogue of the drawings of Watteau, analyzed by a leading expert on this artist.
This volume in French is the second in the prestigious series of Catalogues raisonnés on the French master draftsmen.
Over 4000 drawings by Watteau have been carefully studied by Pierre Rosenberg, one of the world’s leading experts on this artist. Influenced by the world of theater, by Rubens and the Venetian painters of the 1500s, the language of Watteau contains a Nordic vein of realism – a realism that pays attention to minor elements, full of subtle moods – and an orientation toward a melancholy, moving and ambiguous “theatrical” approach.
The artist’s personality emerges above all in the drawings, through which it is possible to retrace the many iconographic sources of his inspiration, the cultural stimuli behind his fascinating, well-balanced works based on a very personal use of the line.