Auction introduction: For the second year in a row, the Old Master and 19th Century Drawings sale in Paris will feature a selection of terracotta alongside works on paper. Ranging from the 16th to the 19th century, these bozzetti transcribe the ‘fire of the imagination’ as described by the artist Charles-Nicolas Cochin (1715–1790) in one of his academic lectures in the 18th century. The diversity of works on offer showcase how artists interpret a similar subject in different ways, in drawing or in sculpture. The Italian section is represented by works by Giovanni Domenico Tiepolo, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and a group of drawings from the collection of art historian Michael Jaffé (1923–1997). The rich Northern section presents numerous landscape drawings: two attributed to Jan Brueghel the Elder, Herman Saftleven, Van Goyen, Pieter Molijn and an important Crucifixion by the 16th-century Flemish miniaturist, Hans Bol. The main discovery in the French section of the sale is a drawing by Nicolas Poussin from the prestigious English collection of Jonathan Richardson, depicting Saint Catherine kneeling surrounded by putti and looking at an image of the Virgin and Child. From the 19th century are a section dedicated to fashion, with works by Karl Lagerfeld and Georges Lepape, a selection of topographical drawings by the great explorer Alphonse Pellion, drawings by women artists including Marie Laurencin, and a fresh watercolor by Sam Szafran from his series on the rooftops of Paris. Sculpture highlights include an impressive terracotta depicting Amalthea and Jupiter’s goat, a reference to the Château de Rambouillet dairy built for Queen Marie-Antoinette. The work by Pierre Julien is a study for the final marble that decorated the grotto of that small temple.