Half-Length Figure 1935 - 1942

Rosamond P. Gray made this watercolour of a Half-Length Figure, and it's like she's pulled a fragment of history right out of her imagination. I get the feeling that Rosamond was trying to catch something fleeting, maybe even catch up to a memory. There's a directness to it, a need to get the thing down as quickly as possible. Look at how she’s handled the light—it gives the figure a sense of being lit from within. I can see the conversation she's having with other painters, with the way she renders form, but she's also totally doing her own thing. There's a feeling that Rosamond is painting not just what she sees, but what she feels.