Young Girl Pouring Tea and Profile Sketch (recto), and Sketch of Italian City Street (verso) n.d.

Elizabeth Murray created this drawing with graphite on paper. The composition is dominated by the delicate lines forming the figure of a young girl pouring tea, positioned to the right, and a faint, reddish profile sketch in the upper-left corner. The sketch of the young girl is carefully delineated. Murray employs a structural rendering where the lines define the contours of the dress and the fall of her hair, creating a sense of volume and space despite the sketch’s simplicity. Notice how the composition is subtly divided, with the negative space around the girl emphasizing her isolation. The additional profile is almost ghost-like, suggesting a fleeting thought or perhaps another study that challenges fixed meaning, hinting at layers of identity. Ultimately, it is through this use of line and space, combined with a structural depiction of form, that the artist invites us to consider the interplay between presence and absence. The drawing is not just a depiction but a dialogue, opening our eyes to the cultural and philosophical understanding of portraiture.