Baby's Hood c. 1937

Isabelle De Strange made this drawing, "Baby's Hood," using delicate lines to build up a sense of volume and texture. There's a real care in the observation of the subject here and it speaks to an understanding of artmaking as a process. Look closely, and you'll see how the artist used thin washes of ink to capture the play of light on the fabric, especially in the way the hood is knotted. The texture of the fringe has been described with a beautiful economy of line, a really skillful shorthand. Notice how the repeated leaf pattern creates a visual rhythm across the surface. It makes me think about the comfort of a familiar pattern, both in the hood itself and in the artist's mark-making. De Strange was working around the same time as James McNeil Whistler, an artist who similarly used subdued tonalist colours, though to very different ends. Like Whistler, De Strange embraces ambiguity, leaving room for the viewer to fill in the gaps.