By the 18th century, Baroque art was falling out of fashion even if it continued to be favoured in Spain where the Catholic Church was a significant patron. In France, the playful Rococo style of artists such as Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard delighted the haute bourgeoisie and courtiers of Louis XV. In Italy it was particularly associated with Tiepolo, Canaletto and Guardi who provided works for the Venetian elite and rich Grand Tourists from the rest of Europe. Neo-Classicism, an artistic expression of the Enlightenment, was born around the mid-century, at the same time as the rediscovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum. But by the end of the century - after the American War of Independence and French Revolution - a counter-reaction had set in with Romantic artists such as Fuseli, Friedrich and Blake rejecting the rational and universal in favour of the emotional and individual.

FRANCE

The 18th century was a very exciting period for French drawing. Jean Antoine Watteau (1684-1721) started life as a scene-painter but before long became a member of the Académie royale. By 1712 he was producing hundreds of figure drawings for his charming paintings of fêtes galantes and beggars, as well as portraits of the aristocracy. The voluptuous nudes, chubby putti and landscapes drawn in chalk by François Boucher (1703-1770) are the epitome of French Rococo style, but he also produced decorative studies of peasants and courtiers, designs for tapestries and mythological and religious scenes. Jean Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806), Boucher’s assistant, visited Rome where he made outdoor sketches like the Cypress Avenue at the Villa d’Este. He is best known, however, for amusing and sometimes risqué scenes like The Useless Resistance. The arrival of artists such as Jacques Louis David (1748-1825) in the lead up to the French Revolution saw a decisive move away from Rococo toward a new classical austerity. Other notable painters included Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (1755-1842) and Adélaïde Labille-Guiard (1749-1803) who were both admitted to the Académie royale in 1783.

 ITALY

One of the first Italian artists to work in the new Rococo style was the Venetian Sebastiano Ricci (1659-1734). a prolific draughtsman who spent much of his life travelling and developed developed a delicate, almost calligraphic style. Giambattista Piazzetta (1682/3-1754), the first director of the new Accademia di Belle Arti di Venezia, was known for his portrait drawings, as was Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757) whose pastels of Grand Tourists were particularly sought-after. Other famous Venetians were Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) who produced sketch-like engravings of real and imaginary buildings, and Giambattista Tiepolo (1696-1770) who employed a cool palette to create airy, light-filled scenes. Tiepolo’s son, Domenico (1727-1804), devoted himself entirely to drawing. Although Francisco Guardi (1712-1793) and Giovanni Antonio Canal (Canaletto) (1697-1768) are best known for painted vedute or city views, they too produced exquisite drawings.

 GREAT BRITAIN & GERMANY

Two of the most memorable types of British drawing in this century were satirical subjects - like those of William Hogarth (1697-1764) and Thomas Rowlandson (1756-1827) - and portraits - like those of Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792).   Gainsborough also produced many landscapes, opening the way up for the wilder, romantic scenes of John Constable (1776-1837) and J.M.W. Turner (1775-1851) in the early 19th century.  The Scot Robert Adam was one of several artists to sketch classical monuments on the Grand Tour. Angelica Kauffman (1741-1807) and Henry Fuseli (1741-1825) - both based in Britain though born in Switzerland - became known for historical, mythological and, in Fuseli’s case, supernatural subjects, although Kauffman was a fine portraitist too.  By the end of the century, the German Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) had begun to produce landscapes in which solitary figures are silhouetted against awe-inspiring backdrops, and the visionary William Blake (1757-1827) was drawing scenes which combined religious and radical politics.

 SPAIN

When the French-born Philip V acceded to the throne of Spain in 1700, he brought with him many French and Italian artists. Even in 1751, it was a Frenchman, Louis Michel van Loo (1701-1771) who became the first director of the new Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. One of few Spanish artists to work at court was Miguel Jacinto Meléndez (1679–1734) who became the leading portraitist, although he too had competition from the French Michel-Ange Houasse from 1715. Houasse’s disciple, Antonio González Ruiz, took himself off to Paris, no doubt realising this was the best way to gain recognition at home. José del Castillo (1737-1793), who studied in Rome with Corranto Giaquinto, shifted between Rococo and Baroque to which he reverted for religious commissions. Another important source of patronage for Castillo and others such as Francisco Bayeu y Subias (1734–1795) and Mariano Salvador Maella (1739–1819) was the royal tapestry factory under the directorship of the Austrian Anton Raphael Mengs. Francisco Goya (1746-1828) was the most important Spanish artist of the century and arguably of all time. Portraitist and court painter to the Spanish Crown, he worked in several media and genres. Some of his strangest drawings are those representing his first ideas for the Caprichos, collected in two albums from 1796 and 1797.