Watteau : the drawings

Exhibition of exquisite drawings by Watteau at the Royal Academy.

I must admit I’m not a fan of 17th century French paintings but these drawings seemed to have more immediacy and life than the paintings. It was a nicely arranged exhibition with a good tape tour which told you just enough without getting bogged down.

It explained well how he moved from using red chalk, to black and red and finally to black, red and white and the difference those techniques made.

I loved the studies of heads from different angles arranged beautifully on a page. My favourite picture was a study of the back of a woman sitting on the ground which showed in detail the elaborate draping of her dress.

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