Drawings & Pastels
Drawing is a type of graphic art created with lines and areas of tone applied to paper usually with pencil, charcoal and coloured pencil, but a wash may also be applied.
They frequently serve as preparatory studies for other works, but are also considered works of art in their own right. A practitioner of drawing is known as a draughtsman.
Pastels are created using a stick made of pure pigment and a binder.
A key part of the general art market, both are also specialist collecting areas in their own right.
![Toussaint Louverture](/media/88261/img_8-1.jpg?rxy=0.48166666666666669,0.22091656874265569&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133189395020000000)
Pick of the week: Haitian hero rides into the New York Met
23 January 2023A drawing of Toussaint Louverture (c.1743-1803), a leader of the Haitian Revolution, has sold from London’s Nonesuch Gallery to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
![img_33-1.jpg](/media/87831/img_33-1.jpg?rxy=0.52666666666666662,0.25906735751295334&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133176766890000000)
Strong London presence at NY event
09 January 2023An event that started back in 2006 as a casual gallery tour held during the New York Old Masters auctions has grown this year to 25 exhibitors.
![Constable drawing](/media/87498/img_9-2.jpg?rxy=0.50666666666666671,0.10699588477366255&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133159979120000000)
Constable’s tree sketch triples estimate at auction
19 December 2022A small drawing by John Constable of a tree in his birthplace of East Bergholt sold for a triple-estimate £31,000 (plus 22% buyer’s premium).
![img_27-5.jpg](/media/87385/img_27-5.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133159222440000000)
Laura Knight: her ‘time has come’
19 December 2022Dealer Karen Taylor is among those noting that “collectors seem to be following the trend set by museums and buying more work by women”.
![img_8-1.jpg](/media/87490/img_8-1.jpg?rxy=0.3321917808219178,0.51147959183673475&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133159266280000000)
Pick of the week: EH Shepard's Wind in the Willows drawing sells with a swagger at auction
19 December 2022Since its first publication in 1908, Kenneth Grahame’s 'The Wind in the Willows' has appeared in various editions and reprints illustrated by nearly 50 artists.
![Madonna and Child drawing](/media/86382/img_1-1.jpg?rxy=0.49177330895795246,0.41965973534971646&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133135057150000000)
Bidders battle to take tondo to 208-times top estimate
21 November 2022A small round drawing of the Madonna and Child created a stir at Ryedale Auctioneers in North Yorkshire.
![Design for a cenotaph](/media/85567/img_11-2.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133116876480000000)
Dealer makes a Canova cenotaph design find
31 October 2022A dealer has identified a design for a cenotaph to Antonio Canova (1757-1822) in time for the 200th anniversary of the Italian sculptor’s death.
![img_56-1.jpg](/media/85247/img_56-1.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133104722160000000)
Three to look out for from Fine Art Society
17 October 2022Studio potter Waistel Cooper (1921-2003) is back in the spotlight at The Fine Art Society and leads a busy autumn programme at the gallery.
![img_48-1.jpg](/media/84980/img_48-1.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133098749150000000)
First of two single-owner selections coming up at Artcurial
10 October 2022Titled 'De Watteau à Vuillard Une Collection Parisienne', paintings, works on paper, furniture and objects from a Parisian collection were the object of the first of two single-owner classic contents sales marking the start of the new auction season for the Old Master, furniture and objects departments at Artcurial (26/20/14.5% buyer’s premium).
![img_44-1.jpg](/media/84465/img_44-1.jpg?rxy=0.14901960784313725,0.58878504672897192&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133089132790000000)
Young’s show catches the eye
26 September 2022This silhouette of a trophy brown trout and fishing fly in pen, ink and watercolour on paper is offered as part of Robert Young Antiques’ exhibition Tiddlers and Whoppers.
![img_28-1.jpg](/media/84171/img_28-1.jpg?rxy=0.04,0.10077519379844961&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133082351060000000)
Pitch perfect for Ruskin’s tower
19 September 2022Watercolour of Oxford by the Victorian arbiter of taste benefits from attractive estimate.
![img_62-2.jpg](/media/84005/img_62-2.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133074651180000000)
Drawing exhibition puts little-known Yorkshire artist in the spotlight
12 September 2022St James’s dealer conducts exhibition of topographical works by unknown Ripon artist
![img_27-2.jpg](/media/83671/img_27-2.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133067685930000000)
How to illustrate the tale of a tail
05 September 2022Bid to £65,000 in a Sotheby’s (25/20/13.9% buyer’s premium) sale that ran online from July 12-19 was the ink drawing by Ernest Shephard shown below.
![img_35-2.jpg](/media/83697/img_35-2.jpg?rxy=0.5643564356435643,0.4125&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133067809110000000)
Menzel pops up in Hamburg thanks to joint drawing exhibition
05 September 2022Stephen Ongpin Fine Art is staging a pop-up exhibition from September 13-October 7 of drawings by Adolph Menzel in Hamburg after an earlier staging was cut short by Covid restrictions.
![Fake or Fortune image](/media/83108/_mg_9737-2.jpg?rxy=0.44333333333333336,0.27610208816705334&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133053831650000000)
Fake or Fortune team investigate whether Sitwell sketch is a Modigliani
24 August 2022In the second episode of the new Fake or Fortune? series, Fiona Bruce and Philip Mould investigate whether an artwork inherited from writer, critic and art collector Sacheverell Sitwell is a real Amedeo Modigliani sketch.
![img_6-1.jpg](/media/83255/img_6-1.jpg?rxy=0.67259786476868333,0.52272727272727271&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133056320890000000)
Pick of the week: Sketchbook strikes saleroom gold
22 August 2022A previously unknown sketchbook of watercolours and drawings relating to the California Gold Rush took £16,000 (plus 25% buyer’s premium) at Chiswick Auctions.
![img_37-4.jpg](/media/83236/img_37-4.jpg?rxy=0.41459074733096085,0.36235595390524966&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133056389370000000)
Henry Moore’s view of Justice offered in New Jersey
22 August 2022The sale at Nye & Company in Bloomfield, New Jersey, on September 7-8 includes Modern and Contemporary art and sculpture from the David and Laura Finn family collection.
![Fernand Khnopff drawing](/media/82365/fernand-khnopff-medusa-2554nedi-27-07-2022.jpg?rxy=0.53025936599423629,0.21529411764705883&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133029815250000000)
Khnopff’s Medusa sketch tops sale of works from Isabel Goldsmith collection at Christie’s
27 July 2022A small work on paper by the symbolist Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) led a selection of works from the Isabel Goldsmith collection offered at Christie’s.
![img_26-1.jpg](/media/82226/img_26-1.jpg?rxy=0.48857644991212656,0.3827956989247312&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133025239130000000)
Hockney stars at Thirsk Hall this summer
18 July 2022Accessible art is the aim of North Yorkshire dealer who hopes to enthuse a younger crowd
![img_15-4.jpg](/media/81987/img_15-4.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=133020100210000000)
Sandby takes third place but four figures at auction
11 July 2022Thomas Sandby’s (1721-98) architectural drawings are significant part of the artist’s oeuvre.
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