Study of a Woman's Head in Profile

This ink sketch on paper demonstrates the classical training evident in late nineteenth-century American draftsmanship. The artist has rendered a female profile with careful attention to the structure of facial features and the flowing treatment of hair, which cascades down the back of the neck in naturalistic waves. The work exemplifies the academic study tradition—careful observation of form and proportion—that underlay much of the graphic work produced for commercial illustration and print during this period. Such foundational studies were essential preparation for the commercial artists and illustrators who would soon populate the burgeoning newspaper syndicates and develop the visual language of sequential narrative art.