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When did independent drawings become valued as finished artworks?

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Watercolor painting by Berthe Morisot showing Edma seated on a sofa in a floral dress with her young daughter Jeanne beside her, both facing slightly right. — Drawing *The Artist's Sister, Edma, with Her Daughter, Jeanne*, watercolor over graphite on paper by Berthe Morisot, 1872; in the collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

In the Western tradition, drawing began to emerge as an independent artistic document toward the end of the 14th century. Prior to this period, drawings were primarily utilitarian, serving as preliminary sketches or technical preparations for other art forms like painting, sculpture, or architecture.123

The transition toward autonomy occurred as artists shifted from using formalized models to creating subjectively probing, creative works. By the late 16th century, drawings began to be esteemed as personal documents and were increasingly collected as autonomous works. Ever since the Renaissance, drawing has gradually shed its anonymous and utilitarian status, gaining recognition as a unique and personal expression of an artist's talent. By the 20th century, drawing was widely considered an autonomous work of art, independent of other artistic mediums.1245