The seventh Master Drawings London sale, involving 20 dealers, will be running at individual London galleries from June 29 to July 6. There is an enormous range of work, but of particular interest to some collectors is the number of French drawings on offer.

The French, along with the Italians, are widely regarded as the most accomplished artists when it comes to drawing. Mark Fecher, of Didier Aaron, one of the galleries taking part, says: “From the 15th century, drawing was dominated by the Italians, who usually drew Biblical or mythological scenes as their patron was the Church.

“Then, from the 18th century, the dominance passed to the French, who produced more secular scenes. This was also the first time that drawing was seen as an art form in its own right.”

By the 18th century, French artists were undergoing rigorous training of up to six years, which contributed to their dominance in the field. Stephen Ongpin, another of the dealers taking part, says: “France has always been regarded as producing exceptional draughtsman – Fragonard, Boucher and Watteau, for example, and then the Impressionists.

“The students began by drawing Greek and Roman sculptures, followed by posed models, moving on to increasingly difficult subject matter. Students also competed for the Prix de Rome – the chance to work in Rome for five years, an indication of the importance of Italian art to the French. Initially drawings were done by the artist as a memo or as study for a composition and were never meant to be displayed. For example, Michelangelo in his old age burnt the drawings he had done in his twenties. He wanted people to focus on the end result and not the process that led to it. This idea persisted until the end of the 18th century: that the drawing was very much the artist’s own.”

From then on, however, drawings began to be regarded as an art form in their own right. They are popular with collectors for two reasons: they have an immediacy not often found in the finished oil and they are cheaper.

Mr Ongpin has 50 works to sell, including Study of a Female Nude with Two Separate Studies of a Leg by François Lemoyne, dating from 1737. It is a study for the painting Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy, now in the Wallace Collection in London, and was the artist’s last painting before he committed suicide. The drawing is priced at £50,000.

Other works include a dancer by Degas in charcoal, drawn in the 1880s and now priced at about £90,000. “Degas spent a lot of time sketching the dancers at the Paris Opera and, again, these were never meant to be shown,” Mr Ongpin says.

Mr Ongpin also has a washerwoman by Pissarro from 1881, at £75,000, a £9,000 picture of the coast of Marseilles, by Alexandre Desgoffe in 1838, and two watercolours by Jean-Georges Wille, from the 1760s, at £5,500 each.

Mr Fecher has works from £7,500. One of the most interesting and important is a preparatory study of La Malediction Paternelle: Le Fils Puni, by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, one of a pair of paintings that now hangs in the Louvre. It is priced at about £80,000.

But don’t be put off by the prices: these are the top of the range. For about £13,000 you could invest in a very charming picture of a lady at a concert, by Jacques André Portail. And if none of these appeal and you wish to buy British, there will also be six Turners in the sale, offered by the dealers W/S Fine Art Andrew Wyld and Agnew’s. They start at £90,000. Master Drawings London 2007: 020-7439 2822