Colour and line: Watteau drawings

Antoine Watteau (probably 1684–1721) was one of the most influential, prolific artists active in 18th-century France. In a short career lasting little more than a decade, he pushed painting in new directions that were to guide generations of French artists, blending genre, mythology and rococo frivolity in works so novel that they heralded a new genre: the fête galante.

Watteau won particular renown for the thousands of drawings he produced during his life. Drawing, as contemporaries realized, was his favorite creative outlet, bringing him 'much more pleasure than his finished pictures'. Instead of making figure studies for a picture as academic practice dictated, Watteau drew speculatively, conceiving ideas that might be slotted into a picture months or even years later. The sheets he produced were to be enjoyed in their own right as the first, freshest iterations of ideas that he thought were dulled when translated into paint.

This display is the first exhibition of the British Museum's Watteau holdings to be held since 1980. Its varied contents demonstrate Watteau's extraordinary talent as a draughtsman, his sophisticated, novel approach to drawing, and the prestige that his graphic works enjoyed among Europe's connoisseurs.

The exhibition takes place at the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London,  WC1B 3DG, UK, from May 15 – September 14, 2025.

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