From the artist’s studio to the Amateur’s portfolio

From the 1820s, Claude Schroth introduced himself as a ‘modern drawing dealer’. His shop, at rue de la Paix in Paris, was described by Delacroix as the first one in its genre. This market is still neglected by scholars, usually because of insufficient sources. Through analysis of the few better-documented cases, light can be shed on important aspects of collecting and the art market in the early nineteenth century. The careful study of treatises, writings by critics and Salon booklets highlights the emergence of a new reception for modern drawings in the 1790s. Then, through a comparative study of two relatively well-documented collections, of Simon Chenard and Antoine Valedau, the important role of new networks of sociability around artists will be examined and closely related to the taste for medieval and picturesque subjects of nascent romanticism. Lastly, these findings will be placed in the context of the rise in collecting modern drawings and in particular the vogue of albums and amicorum .