The collection of Old Master drawings compiled by the winegrower and historian Henning Hoesch has been built up since the 1980s and comprises works by Italian, French and Dutch artists from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century. It is the result of a highly idiosyncratic pursuit whose interest focuses not so much on mature compositions as on insights into the creative process of graphic invention. In the search for drafts and detail studies in which the beauty of a pictorial idea becomes palpable in different and constantly surprising ways, the collector discovered some very unusual drawings. The spectrum ranges from Baldassare Peruzzi to Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, from Claude Lorrain to Antoine Watteau, and includes works newly attributed to El Greco and Annibale Carracci, as well as lesser-known artists such as Cornelis Saftleven and the Sicilian, Filippo Tancredi.

The book presents 100 drawings from the collection in detail. In the compilation of the catalogue, Henning Hoesch was supported by many acclaimed art-historians, who, in their detailed discussions, go not only into the motifs and artistic contexts of the individual sheets, but also into aspects of drawing technique and questions of attribution. More than 250 reference illustrations allow the reader an insight into the creative process and the rich scope for expression provided by the drawing medium.