A selection of drawings by Antoine Watteau is being shown at the Frick collection in New York until January 9th 2000. From the start Watteau's drawings were much sought by collectors less than five years after his death in 1721 when the first volume of the Julienne compilation of his engravings was published.
Watteau was in fact more satisfied with his drawings than with his paintings and took more pleasure working with a pencil rather than with a brush and often felt at a loss with oils as he could render his scenes as he did in his drawings.
The artist was really a virtuoso with pencils when he drew men and women in their costumes mixing red and white heightening lines and tones on a sheet of paper.
The Watteau and his World exhibition shows some 40 drawings by Watteau himself and a selection by other French artists of between 1700 and 1750.
Alan Wintermute from Christie's, curator of the exhibition, said the last great exhibition on Watteau's works took place some 15 years ago in Washington and Paris and that a whole generation had not had the opportunity of seeing his production.
A comparison with other artists seems to have been a useful initiative as the exhibition tends to demonstrate the extent of his influence over other French painters, notably Nicolas Lancret and Jean-Baptiste Pater.
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