Mexican Children near a Well

Eugene Higgins's sketch captures two children in conversation near a wooden well structure in New Mexico. The drawing demonstrates Higgins's characteristic approach to figure studies—economical linework defines the children's poses and clothing with specificity, while the architectural elements suggest environment without excessive detail. Higgins (1874–1958) was an American painter and printmaker known for documentary subjects and social observation. This work reflects the early-twentieth-century artist's practice of field sketches as preparation for larger compositions, a method that allowed direct study of local subjects and daily life in the American Southwest during a period of increasing regional artistic interest.