Fernando Botero, the renowned Colombian painter and sculptor, is also a brilliant draftsman who, as he states, finds more interest and greater joy every day in the work of pencil on paper. Botero's drawings, which until now have been like the most secret part of his work, are not simply notes or sketches for later works but have a purpose in themselves. In them, Botero has worked with growing interest because drawing is not a lesser art; on the contrary, it is a risky, concise, and demanding artistic language. This book, which rescues a good part of that production, constitutes a splendid gallery of portraits, in which the handling of line and the play of proportions is a true lesson in virtuosity. The essay by Marc Fumaroli, of the Academie FranÇaise,