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| Louis de Boullogne the Younger Kneeling Figure before 1733 drawing private collection |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Three Studies of Seated Women ca. 1715 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Jean-Antoine Watteau Two Studies of a Dancer ca. 1712-13 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Pietro Antonio Novelli after Pietro Tacca Chained Nude Prisoner late 18th century drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| François Verdier Draped Woman holding an Urn before 1730 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
"To indulge the power of fiction, and send imagination out upon the wing, is often the sport of those who delight too much in silent speculation. When we are alone we are not always busy; the labor of excogitation is too violent to last long; the ardor of inquiry will sometimes give way to idleness or satiety. He who has nothing external that can divert him must find pleasure in his own thoughts, and must conceive himself what he is not; for who is pleased with what he is? He then expatiates in boundless futurity, and culls from all imaginable conditions that which for the present moment he should most desire, amuses his desires with impossible enjoyments, and confers upon his pride unattainable dominion. The mind dances from scene to scene, unites all pleasures in all combinations, and riots in delights which nature and fortune, with all their bounty, cannot bestow."
– Samuel Johnson, from Rasselas (1759)
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| François Verdier Kneeling Woman before 1730 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| François Boucher Study of a Triton ca. 1748-53 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| François Boucher Eros and Psyche (design for a ceiling) before 1770 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| François Boucher Study of Valet with Coffee Pot ca. 1739 drawing Art Institute of Chicago |
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| François Boucher Studies of Arms before 1770 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
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| Charles de La Fosse Studies of a Young Girl early 18th century drawing (pastel) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| Giandomenico Tiepolo Figure of Fame in a Cloud of Putti late 18th century drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
"The business of a poet is to examine not the individual but the species; to remark general properties and large appearances: he does not number the streaks of the tulip, or describe the different shades in the verdure of the forest. He is to exhibit in his portraits of nature such prominent and striking features, as recall the original to every mind; and must neglect the minuter discriminations, which one may have remarked and another have neglected, for those characteristics which are alike obvious to vigilance and carelessness."
– Samuel Johnson, from Rasselas (1759)
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| Martin Knoller Study for Glorification of St Matthew in Pendentive ca. 1754 drawing Minneapolis Institute of Art |
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| Isaac Walraven Study of a Hand 1727 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |