From the back cover:

This book is a complete reprint of the fabled but rare Drawing Course (Cours de Dessin) of Charles Bargue and Jean-Léon Gérôme, published in Paris in the 1860's and 1870's. For most of the next half-century, this set of nearly 200 masterful lithographs was copied by art students worldwide before they attempted to draw from a live model. This book will be valuable to a wide range of artists, students, art historians and collectors, even as it introduces them to the hitherto-neglected master, Charles Bargue.

The Drawing Course is separated into three sections, in ascending order of difficulty. The first section consists of lithographs by Bargue after casts of sculptures, mostly antique examples that present the structure of the human body with remarkable clarity and intelligence. The second part contains the lithographs that Bargue made after master drawings by Renaissance and modern artists, and the third section almost 60 exemplary drawings of nude male models.

The volume concludes with a biography of Charles Bargue and a catalogue of his paintings, accompanied by reproductions of works both located and lost.