One hundred master works that chronicle the genius of French draftsmanship over the course of three tumultuous centuries provide the focus for an exhibition showcasing one of the world’s foremost private collections of French drawings. The Philadelphia Museum of Art will present “Poussin to Cézanne: French Drawings from the Prat Collection.”

Selected from the collection assembled over the last three decades by the novelist and curator Louis-Antoine Prat and his wife, journalist Véronique Prat, the exhibition is a selection of 100 works by 66 artists. These drawings by great masters and superb lesser-known artists were chosen by Pierre Rosenberg, former director of the Louvre, member of the Académie Française and guest curator for this project. They will be on view at the museum, Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 26th Street, from July 16 through September 25.

The drawings comprise a panorama of French draftsmanship. Included is an array of subjects, styles and drawing techniques: landscapes and portraits; meticulously finished drawings and brilliant sketches; and techniques such as graphite, watercolor and colored chalks.

The exhibition begins with the late mannerist French style of Jacques Callot (1592-1635) and extends through the masterful drawings of such Eighteenth Century artists as Watteau (1684-1721), Boucher (1703-1770) and Fragonard (1780-1850), to early Nineteenth Century figures such as Ingres (1780-1867) and Delacroix (1798-1863), and concludes with the flowering of Impressionism in works by Manet (1832-1883), Degas (1834-1917) and Cézanne (1839-1906). Also included are unexpected examples of drawings by such leading literary figures as Victor Hugo (1802-1885) and Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867).

“I can’t imagine a more timely way to follow Bastille Day in Philadelphia than to open a window onto French culture through this remarkable selection of drawings,” said Anne d’Harnoncourt, director of the museum.

“Poussin to Cézanne” will be presented in a suite of three galleries, corresponding to the three centuries spanned by the drawings in the exhibition. It is installed in the Dorrance Special Exhibition Galleries and coordinated at the museum by Innis Howe Shoemaker, The Audrey and William H. Helfand Senior Curator of Prints, Drawings, and Photographs. “The Prat collection is one of the world’s most beautiful collections of drawings in private hands,” said Ms Shoemaker. “Drawings are wonderful for bringing you face to face with the artist’s process and thought as ideas for a composition are just beginning to come into being.”

Among the latest works in the exhibition, George Pierre Seurat’s “Bootblack With His Customer” (circa 1884-86) conveys the striking modernity of the artist credited with developing the painting technique known as pointillism or divisionism. His unusual drawing technique also resulted in some of the most poetic and beautiful drawings of the Nineteenth Century.

Now numbering some 200 works, Véronique and Louis-Antoine Prat began collecting more than thirty years ago. As Mr Prat recounts in A Passion for Drawing, the illustrated catalog that accompanies the exhibition: “I was 30 years old when I raised my hand in an auction room for the first time in my life. It was March 1974, I was bidding for a drawing, and my heart was beating as loudly as Molly Bloom’s lover’s.”

Graduates of l’Ecole du Louvre, the Prats set out to build a collection that highlighted the work of French artists active before 1900. It now provides one of the most in-depth explorations of the art of French draftsmanship in the world.

Passion for Drawing: Poussin to Cezanne, Works from the Prat Collection is a 288-page catalog that accompanies the exhibition. In addition to individual entries and full-color illustrations of everything in the exhibition, this scholarly catalog provides an overview of the collection, an essay by Mr Prat and an overview of the three centuries of French history represented by the exhibition by scholar Bruno Ferté.

The book, published and distributed by Art Services International, Alexandria, Va., also includes a bibliography, an index, and biographies of the artists included in the exhibition. The publication provides insights about the collectors and presents a visual survey of three centuries of French drawing.

The book is available in the museum store for $54.95, hardcover, 800-329-4856 or via the museum’s website at www.philamuseum.org.

For general information, call 215-763-8100.