Sheet of Sketches: Nude and Clothed Figures

Arthur B. Davies's "Sheet of Sketches: Nude and Clothed Figures" (1924) is a watercolor with black crayon and touches of gouache over green pencil and graphite on gray laid paper. This is a working sheet, a page from a sketchbook where Davies rapidly noted figure compositions and poses. The mixture of media—watercolor, crayon, gouache, pencil, graphite—suggests the urgency of the creative process, as Davies switched tools to capture different aspects of his ideas. The green pencil underdrawing provides an unusual foundation, its cool color influencing the warmer tones applied over it. The sheet shows both nude and clothed figures, perhaps studies for paintings or independent compositional ideas. These sketchbook pages offer invaluable insight into Davies's creative process, showing how he generated and refined ideas through rapid drawing.

Davies's sketchbook pages provide a window into the working methods of a major American artist, showing the generative process of drawing that underlay his more finished works.

This sheet of sketches captures Davies in the act of creation, the mixture of media and the rapid notation of ideas revealing the artist's mind at work.