Dress c. 1936

Rosalia Lane made this drawing of a dress, we don't know when. The light pencil lines suggest a kind of quiet diligence, a close looking. It reminds me that even a simple sketch can reveal so much about an artist's way of seeing and understanding form. Look at the lace detailing around the hem and the sleeves, there is a real attention to texture. The soft gradations of tone create a sense of volume, like Lane is gently coaxing the dress into existence on the page. The dress stands alone, there is no body within it, no setting around it. It reminds me of the drawings of fashion designs by Andy Warhol early in his career, before he became famous. There is a similar sense of care and attention to detail, a similar understanding of how the simplest of marks can evoke so much. These are images that are as much about the process of looking and drawing as they are about the object itself. And isn't that what art is all about?