REVIEW | 500 Years of Drawing – Trois Crayons

Currently gracing the lovely premises of Frieze is a divine exhibition celebrating 500 Years of Drawing, just one of many offerings during London Art Week.

Organised by Trois Crayons, an exciting new platform dedicated to the connoisseurship of drawings, the show brings into transhistorical dialogue a diverse array of works from 17 international dealers, featuring the likes of Guercino, Gwen John, Pablo Picasso, and even Christelle Tea!

I was thrilled to find a lovely study for Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres’ Angelica Saved by Ruggiero hidden in the corner of small room upstairs (Ambroise Duchemin), while Battista Franco’s copy of a lost Raphael drawing for the Repulse of Attila hung downstairs near a gorgeous drawing of a stooping monk lifting a pillar by a Master Artemio (both Day & Faber).

Portraiture is always fun for me, so one should certainly look out for Gian Lorenzo Bernini’s portrait of a man (Galerie Ratton-Ladrière), Alphonse Legros’ self-portrait (Ambroise Duchemin), another of a man’s head (Karen Taylor Fine Art), and also a creepy one by Alfred Kubin in a devishly striking frame (Ambroise Duchemin).

Was I expecting an abstract piece by Giacomo Balla (Stephen Ongpin Fine Art), one of my favourite Futurists? No.

Or perhaps a sublime still life by Giovanni Boldini (Nicolas Schwed)?

Heck, I almost mistook a Luca Giordano drawing of Susanna and the Elders (Galerie Ratton-Ladrière) for a Luca Cambiaso; the latter is prominently shown elsewhere (Enrico Frascione Antiquario).

And don’t even remind me how I flipped at the sight of an iconic Jean-François Millet drawing of gleaners (Willoughby Gerrish), one of my top Barbizon painters!