Death, Eros, Gothic, natural powers or exoticism... Romanticism takes hold of these themes and explores the mysteries of human life. Through about thirty of its most beautiful sheets, using various techniques such as graphite, pen or watercolor, the exhibition highlights the richness of Romantic drawing and presents works by Géricault, Delacroix, Victor Hugo and Scheffer.

It was between 1815 and 1850 that Romantic drawing reached its apogee in an artistic context full of vitality. The Beaux-Arts de Paris intends to sketch its specificities - extravagance, lyricism, despair and excessiveness - through works from its collection, most of which are unpublished.

Attracted by faraway journeys, heroic scenes, and the spectacle of nature, the romantic artists forged a new fantastic and audacious universe that appealed to passionate collectors, some of whom donated their drawings to the Beaux-Arts de Paris: His de la Salle (1867), Edouard Gatteaux (1883) and Alfred Armand (1908).

For this exhibition, the Beaux-Arts de Paris unveils part of this collection, first thoughts but also finished works executed in techniques as varied as graphite, pen and watercolor.


Thanks to the generosity of the association Le Cabinet des amateurs de dessins de l'École des Beaux-Arts, but also with the help of the Heritage Fund of the Ministry of Culture, the Beaux-Arts de Paris has been able to acquire major works from this period, such as Six Horses in Freedom by Horace Vernet, The Conversion of Saint Paul and A Woman on Horseback as an Amazon in Front of a Landscape by Eugène Delacroix, Victor Hugo's Château de Corbus, Eugène Isabey's L'orage en mer, Célestin Nanteuil's Ballade de Léonore, Théodore Chassériau's Etude de femme relever sa chevelure et de mendiante tient son enfant and more recently Eberhard le larmoyeur and Ossian évoquer les fantômes sur les bords du Lora by Ary Scheffer.