Young Woman Holding a Book, William Strutt
Link is to zoomable version on Google Art Project; downloadable file on Wikimedia Commons; original is in the Art Gallery of South Australia, which also has an larger version on their site, though not as large as the other two.
Pencil and watercolor on paper. The sheet is roughly 15 x 20 in. (38 x 52 cm), but I’ve taken the liberty of cropping in on the drawing, even in the “full” version at top.
This does not look like a preliminary sketch for another work, but like a finished drawing meant to stand on its own. I love the careful, engraving-like hatching in the modeling of the face and hands, and the contrast between that and the more economical rendering of the texture of the girl’s hair and dress.
Light touches of watercolor enhance the eyes and lips and what looks to me to be a pencil with a holder in her hand — making me think it may be a sheaf of drawing paper she holds rather than a finished book. (If it were writing paper, I would expect her to be holding a pen.)
A drawing of great delicacy and refinement, yet bold in the rendering of the folds of the dress, and powerful in its statement of the appearance of the model. Whether it’s intended to be a portrait or a genre piece, I think we can assume from the character in the girl’s face and the superb level of draftsmanship, that the drawing is an accurate likeness of a real person.
A beautiful drawing in every respect.
