Untitled (Study of a Standing Monk)

Ida Josephine Burgess's pen-and-ink study captures a robed figure in three-quarter view, his gaze lifted in contemplation. The economical linework defines drapery through parallel strokes, while careful hatching models the face and hands. A Chicago-born artist working in the late nineteenth century, Burgess developed the figure studies that were foundational to illustration and commercial art of her era. This sketch exemplifies the observational discipline underlying successful figure drawing, the bedrock skill before artists could populate the dynamic compositions that would soon animate newspaper pages and illustrated publications.