A Girl Half Length in Profile to Left 

Curator: Wilkie's delicate pencil sketch, "A Girl Half Length in Profile to Left", immediately strikes me as a study in quiet introspection. Editor: Absolutely. And it's the barest whisper of graphite on paper, isn't it? You can almost feel the tooth of that paper—and wonder about its source. Curator: True, there is something tender and vulnerable about it. I see her as lost in thought. Is it me, or is there a hint of melancholy in her downcast gaze? Editor: Perhaps. Or she is simply one face among the many that fueled the industry in 19th century England. Paper production was already booming—and who were the people behind that? Curator: Good point, it makes me think about the way the artist chose to capture this young woman in such a minimalist manner. It is almost as though he wanted to capture a fleeting moment. Editor: I wonder about her labor. Did she ever hold a sheet like this in her own hands? Curator: I like to think that she did. It gives me some comfort, to imagine that she was involved with the production of this sketch somehow. Editor: Indeed. It is a little window into a whole forgotten world.