Red Chalk Study of a Seated Group with Infant and Lamb
Two women and children arranged in a pyramidal devotional composition
A red chalk compositional study of a devotional group: an older woman is seated at the left while a younger woman leans forward across her lap, and at the lower right a nude infant reaches down to embrace a lamb held by a small kneeling child. The figures are massed into a compact pyramid, with the drapery of the two women worked up in dense hatching while the children remain more lightly drawn. The sheet is a working study in soft red chalk on prepared paper, torn at the upper right corner.
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Seated older woman and forward-leaning younger woman
The seated older woman occupies the upper left, her head inclined and haloed by faint radiating strokes. The younger woman leans diagonally across her lap, her face bent down toward the children below. Both are enveloped in heavy drapery drawn with vigorous parallel hatching.
Infant reaching for a lamb
At the lower right a nude infant leans down and stretches both arms toward a lamb, whose head and forelegs are held by a smaller kneeling child. The lamb's body is lightly modelled at the extreme lower right of the group.