The Story of Drawing

“[A] compelling and enlightening book.”—Michael Prodger, Apollo

“Owens’s selection of artworks is superb. Each provides a plot point in her history of drawing… . Its scope is enormous, but the book feels suitably intimate.”—Daisy Dunn, Literary Review

“Owens’s book matters because drawing continues to be marginalized in public understanding of what art is… . The Story of Drawing makes the case for drawing as uniquely able to convey aspects of human experience that no other medium can.”—Ben Street, Times Literary Supplement

“It is a history of materials as well as of style, taking in developments in paper-making and implements.”—Apollo

“Susan Owens shows not just the centrality of graphic art from prehistory onwards, but how artists from Dürer to Seurat used pen and pencil as a way to investigate their most private thoughts.”—Michael Prodger, New Statesman

“With Owens’s expertise as a curator and art historian, it is detailed and precise—the history of paper, the qualities of pen-nibs and the properties of chalk all feature—but most of all, it reads as a story of delight in its objects.”—Apollo

“With accuracy and passion, [Owens] carefully dissects everything from the history of paper through to the properties of chalk.”—Wedlake Bell

“[Owens] has a clear sense that there is simply something about drawings: something personal and contingent; something that makes them exciting.”—Keith Miller, Art Newspaper

“It is fascinating to follow Susan Owens as she dissects the sketches of artists ranging from Michelangelo to Käthe Kollwitz. [This book] offers a way of understanding artists at their most unguarded.”—Phoebe Frangoul, Elle Decoration, “Best Books to Give (or Keep),” Christmas 2024

“[This book is] comprehensive and tantalises enough about each of her subjects to encourage us to look for more.”—Nicholas Cranfield, Church Times

“A readable analysis… The author holds the reader’s hand throughout.”—Art Newspaper

“A virtuosic study.“—Tim Smith-Laing, Apollo

“Original and highly engaging.”—Martin Gayford, The Spectator

“Owens has a joyful way with a paragraph. In particular, she takes a gourmet’s pleasure in the materials of drawing and rounds off her text with a glossary that is at once punctilious and delectable. She also tells winning anecdotes, whether about Huang Xiangjian trekking in 1650s Yunnan or Berthe Morisot picnicking in 1870s Picardy.”—Julian Bell, London Review of Books

Winner of the Apollo Book of the Year award 2024

Dr Susan Owens is a writer, art historian and former V&A curator. Her previous books include The Art of Drawing, Spirit of Place and Imagining England’s Past.

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