The master drawings at the Crocker Art Museum, dating from the late-15th to the mid-19th centuries, form an unusually rich and historic collection, known to include of many keystones of the history of art. Sheets by Carpaccio, D rer, Callot, and Boucher only scratch the surface of a collection whose sources include the great eighteenth-century collectors Pierre-Jean Mariette, Pierre Crozat, Joshua Reynolds, and Antoine-Joseph Dezallier d'Argenvil≤ their 17th-century predecessors Evrard Jabach, Nicolas Lanier, Jan Pietersz Zoomer, and Pieter Lely; as well as 19th-century collectors like William Esdaile, Thomas Lawrence, and Dominique Vivant-Denon. Purchased for the most part in 186971 by the founders of the Crocker Art Museum, the works are in some ways a time capsule that gives insight into the European art market and the taste of the patrons. Through this catalogue the Museum introduces a selection of the best drawings to the public for the first time, and provides a splendid overview of this unique collection, shedding fuller light on its history and context, both in relation to California events and to American patronage.