The Story of Drawing: An Alternative History of Art

“[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

“Owens . . . dissects the sketches of artists ranging from Michelangelo to Käthe Kollwitz as they observe the world around them, escape into their imaginations or explore an idea. [The book] offers a way of understanding artists at their most unguarded.”—Elle Decoration

“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

“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 Gift or Keep for 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