Study Sheet, Two Female Models and Drapery, ca. 1717

Watteau drew tirelessly, arranging his drawings thematically into folders, building up a repertoire from which he could later select the perfect figures for his paintings. He used the figure of the standing lady holding her robe with one hand in the middle of his seminal painting Embarkation to the Island of Cythera, depicting several stages in romantic courtship. This drawing is eloquent proof of Watteau’s outstanding ability to render gestures and textural materiality with elegant fluidity. The technique of using three colors of chalk on buff colored paper, which he developed to perfection, he learnt from his artistic exemplar, Rubens.