Drawings & Pastels

Sotheby’s has something special to offer for the Paris drawings fest – a single-owner collection formed by a dedicated couple that, say the auctioneers, is the fruit of a life dedicated to a passion for painting and drawings.

There is, of course, no shortage of works on paper to be found on sale at the Drouot auction centre either in the form of dedicated auctions or as sections within mixed-discipline sales.

It is time to celebrate the art of works on paper in Paris. Centred around the 27-year-old specialist fair, the Salon du Dessin, held from March 21-26, will be a whole roster of auctions, fairs, dealers’ selling shows and events in the city’s museums and institutions.

The roster of exhibitor names at the Salon du Dessin underscores the international standing of this specialist event. Although it is organised by a committee of Paris dealers, more than half the participants come from overseas.

The most eye-catching price at the latest series of Old Master and 19th century art sales in New York came at Sotheby’s separately staged auction of drawings from the collection of the late Howard and Saretta Barnet.

Works on paper, not oil paintings, stole the show at Lawrences (22% buyer’s premium) of Crewkerne.

A pastel portrait of a fashionable young Georgian woman in an ostrich feather hat and blue coat with her dog topped the picture section at Lincolnshire saleroom Golding Young & Mawer (20% buyer’s premium).

Familiarity with the works on paper market means getting to grips with the technical processes behind drawing, painting and printing and learning the requisite vocabulary.

Drawings fair now also includes paintings and sculpture to complement the core focus...

Among the works that David Tunick, a longstanding MDNY exhibitor, will be showing this year at his gallery on East 69th Street is this large 18 x 14in (45.5 x 35.5 cm) watercolour over pencil by John Robert Cozens.

Jill Newhouse, a New York dealer with a gallery on East 81st Street, is a veteran of Master Drawings New York, having taken part for many years.

An auction series devoted to Old Master paintings, drawings and works of art has long been a feature of the first month of the year in New York for Sotheby’s and Christie’s.

For Master Drawings New York this year, London dealer Martyn Gregory is focusing on one female artist and her output during her extensive (and, for the time, very intrepid) travels around the world.

Theodor Geisel, writer, cartoonist and artist, is better known as Dr Seuss, the author of a host of children’s books. These are now famous the world over for the magical way in which they used a repetitive vocabulary and striking images to aid reading and render it an enjoyable experience.

A market-fresh drawing of a Balinese lady by the Dutch artist Willem Gerard Hofker (1902-81) soared to £8500 at Greenslade Taylor Hunt (19% buyer’s premium) in Taunton.