Seated Sketch of David with Hands Clasped Behind Head 19th-20th century

Editor: Here we have Denman Waldo Ross's "Seated Sketch of David with Hands Clasped Behind Head." It's a rather small pencil drawing. What strikes me most is the underlying grid; it feels so mathematical and at odds with the figure’s relaxed pose. What do you see in this piece? Curator: The grid, you see, is everything! Ross was obsessed with harmonious proportions, with finding the divine math hiding in beauty. He believed, bless his heart, that art could be taught as a science of balance. He’s practically diagramming his artistic process for us. Does it feel a bit…clinical, perhaps? Editor: A little, yes. It's like he's dissecting beauty rather than celebrating it. Curator: Precisely! But there’s something charming in that very pursuit. It reminds me that even the most heartfelt art often begins with a kind of deliberate construction. Editor: So, it’s the tension between the emotional and the rational that makes this piece interesting. Curator: Exactly! An artist's struggle right there on paper.