French Drawings XVI-XIX Centuries is a fully illustrated catalogue of fifty French drawings from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, drawn from the Witt collection at the Courtauld Institute Galleries. Instead of a conventional concentration on a particular school, chronological period or type of subject-matter, the keynote of the collection is variety: variety of function, style and technique. The selection of works in this book is intended to reflect that variety, and to highlight the remarkable richness of three centuries of French drawings.

"Since 1957, when Martin Davies published The French School, an unprecedented amount of research has been undertaken on French seventeenth-century artists. Taking account of this, Humphrey Wine has written afresh on the seventeenth-century paintings in Davies's catalogue; he has also written detailed entries on all subsequent acquisitions in this field. These include, as well as paintings by Claude and Poussin, major pictures such as La Hyre's Allegory of Grammar, the Le Nain brothers' Adoration of the Shepherds and Le Sueur's Alexander and his Doctor.".

This newest volume in Hudson Hills Press's acclaimed series about leading collections of master drawings presents sixty-eight great sheets, all reproduced in full-color, including many versos, from one of the finest college museums in America.