Bust of Girl in Profile to Right 1748

This small drawing, Bust of Girl in Profile to Right, resides at the Art Institute of Chicago and was executed with graphite and colored chalk on blue laid paper. The drawing presents a classical profile, immediately invoking notions of idealized beauty, yet the materials and the sketch-like quality of the lines destabilize any sense of formal perfection. The blue ground functions as both atmosphere and void, allowing the figure to emerge as a study in contrasts, a dialogue between line and shadow. The artist teases out a tension between the idealized form and the raw, provisional nature of the sketch. The work seems less interested in capturing a likeness than in exploring the semiotic weight of the profile itself. The use of colored chalk to subtly tint the face brings a delicate, almost ephemeral quality to the figure, enhancing the contrast between the permanent and the transient. The octagonal shape containing the drawing further abstracts the figure from any real-world context, underscoring that this is an exercise in form rather than portraiture. In its incompleteness, the drawing invites us to consider how much meaning can be conveyed through suggestion, rather than direct representation.