Head of a Coster Girl 1920

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst made this drawing, Head of a Coster Girl, in 1920. There’s something so immediate and intimate about drawings, you see the hand of the artist, the erasures and reworkings. It’s like catching someone in the act of thinking. Here, the pencil work is so delicate, building up tone gradually. It’s fascinating to see how Brockhurst captures the light on her face, the soft curve of her cheek. He has a really beautiful, almost photographic attention to detail, he doesn’t miss a trick. Look at the way he renders the hair, those dark areas versus the lighter ones, which create the illusion of volume. It reminds me a little of Ingres, the way he could make a drawing feel so complete and sculptural. And like with Ingres, this is a piece that leaves plenty of room for our interpretation, for seeing and thinking.