The publication provides an in-depth survey of French drawing of the period.

Featuring approximately seventy drawings, Poussin, Claude, and Their World included outstanding masterpieces by Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, as well as lesser-known masters such as Sébastien Bourdon, Simon Vouet, Noël Coypel, Charles Le Brun, Eustache Le Sueur, and others.

This body of drawings included a wide variety of artistic genres, among them allegory, religion, portraiture, and landscape. Included were preparatory studies for paintings, painted décors, tapestries, decorative ornaments, and engravings. The selection was also reflective of the École's own collecting patterns; most of its works come from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and from donations made by private collectors in both the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Frick Collection was the exhibition's only North American venue.