Study for a ‘Matrimonial Speculation’ 1990

Edwin Austin Abbey made this drawing, a Study for a ‘Matrimonial Speculation’, with what looks like ink on paper, and it feels like he was trying to capture a whole world in a few quick strokes. The sheer economy of line here is, like, a lesson in seeing. Look at how he uses a kind of frenetic, scribbly line to build up the figures and the space. It's all suggestion, not declaration. Take the cluster of people on the left. A few lines conjure up bodies leaning together, maybe whispering secrets or sizing up the scene. And that table in the foreground, it’s just a few confident rectangles, but it grounds the whole composition. It reminds me a little of Daumier, but with a lighter touch. Both artists are interested in the theater of human interaction. It makes you wonder what stories Abbey was trying to tell, and how much we fill in ourselves. Art, after all, is just an ongoing conversation, and this drawing is a lively contribution.