By Alastair Laing with a foreword by Pierre Rosenberg
Published in 2003 by the AFA in association with Scala Publishers Ltd.
264 pages, 134 illus. (100 in color), 10 ½ × 8 inches
Paper • ISBN 1-885444-28-1 • $37.50 (AFA/members only)
Cloth • ISBN 1-85759-298-0 • $55.00 (Antique Collectors’ Club)

During a period when draftsmanship was practiced primarily as an academic exercise, François Boucher was one of the few artists who continuously drew for his own edification. He was also one of the first artists to cultivate important collectors for his works on paper, exploiting the developing taste in Europe and elsewhere for drawings as autonomous works of art. Throughout his life he remained committed to drawing as a vital element in the process of painting, as studies both for and after his painted compositions. Remarkably prolific, he is thought to have produced more than ten thousand drawings during the course of his career. This catalogue, published on the three hundredth anniversary of Boucher’s birth, features entries that reassess the dating of many of Boucher’s drawings, trace their history of ownership, discuss the relationship between drawings and specific paintings, and reveal other new research.