Eighteenth Century Drawings from the Collection of Marius Paulme

I came across 3 volumes of an auction catalog. Dessins Anciens, Gouaches & Pastels principalement de L'Ecole Francaise du XVIII Siecle. Composant la Collection de M. Marius Paulme. Gallerie Georges Petit. Mai, 1929.

(Old drawings, Gouaches & Pastels primarily Eighteenth Century French School. The Collection of Mr. Marius Paulme. Gallerie Georges Petit. May, 1929.)

Two volumes  are the drawings, the third is sculptures from the same collection.

The drawings are rarely seen. Many seem as fresh as the day they were drawn.

The first is by Louis-Léopold Boilly

The next is by the Rococo artist François Boucher who was probably the most celebrated artist of his time. This drawing shows his drawing skills more than his rococo taste.

The drawing may be a study for his painting, "Portrait de Madame de Pompadour."

The third is by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, another rococo painter, but I selected this drawing on the strength of his observation rather than his rococo sensibility.

The last is by Hyacinthe Rigaud, not currently as famous as the others but this detail drawing "Studies for a portrait of a man" shows an artist in command of his line with keen observational skills.

You can search for books about these artists and the original auction catalog at AbeBooks. To search for the auction catalog enter "Collection Marius Paulme" in the search box.

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How to Draw Hands

Here is a wonderful book that demonstrates how to draw hands from every perspective with clear drawings and useful text. How to Draw Hands

From the text, "Your first care in drawing hands associated with the head or figure should be to make them, proportionately, the right size; and, with beginners, this instruction invariably resolves itself into exhortations to make them bigger. Regarding them, I must suppose, as an insignificant detail, the novice always makes the hands (and feet) of his figure drawing much too small; or even neglects them altogether."

Here are a few other examples

of hand drawing instructions from the 1940s and 1950s.

From John Moranz' Mastery of Drawing. The original of this book was an unusually complete book about drawing, 399 pages including animals, people, illustration for advertising, perspective, hands, feet, heads, and expression. It included color reproductions of figure paintings, one of which was reproduced on the cover.

There is a new Dover reprint of John Moranz' book, Drawing and Illustration: A Complete Guide, available at Amazon.com.

Cover of new edition, old cover.

Drawing and Illustration, by John Moranz.

Another book by John Moranz, the original version,The Professional Guide to Drawing and Illustration (Mastery of Drawing)

From Willy Pogany's Willy Pogany's The Art of Drawing

. Willy Pogany's book has fewer illustrations than the Moranz book, but in its own way is just as complete, plus he has a thoroughly authoritative line in his drawings which you can see in the examples of the hands above.

It is also available in a Dover edition, and in an edition from Keessinger Publishing, Willy Pogany's Drawing Lessons

Cover of new edition, old cover.

Drawing Lessons by Willy Pogany, take a look at the book at Amazon.com.

A new book is about to be released Willy Pogány Rediscovered.

From John Everard's Artist's Model

Draw Real Hands! (Discover Drawing Series)

Drawing Hands and Feet: Form, Proportions, Gestures and Actions (The Art of Drawing)

Drawing and Painting Hands and Feet

Other posts about drawing hands.

How Harry Cook Learned to Draw

This is another revision. This time of a student free-hand drawing journal from 1897. I added the source material from Chapman's American Drawing book after I found a copy and discovered that Harry Cook's drawings were all copies of engravings in the book. 

There is also an introduction with some notes on the value placed on free-hand drawing at the turn of the last century. It was evidently a prerequisite for studying the sciences and engineering.  

Teachers considered learning drawing like learning another language that was used to develop the thought process. It would be great to revive that idea.

Here are some examples from the student drawings and from the engravings that he copied.

See the ebook at:

How Harry Cook Learned to Draw

This ebook is also available as a printed book.
Please visit Lulu.com.