Reclining Female Nude, Resting on Left Elbow, Head in Three-quarters Profile 

Mark Rothko made this drawing of a reclining female nude, with ink on paper. It’s a quick sketch, using a humble material—not so different from what you might find in a school classroom. Rothko is far better known for his large, luminous abstract paintings. But he trained in a classical manner, as this sketch reveals. The process here is one of disciplined looking, recording the figure on the page with a minimum of fuss. The lines are thin and economical, almost tentative. Yet, they successfully describe the model’s form, capturing the weight of her flesh as she reclines. This work reminds us that even the most revolutionary artists are grounded in traditional skills. Rothko’s later turn to abstraction can be seen as a process of paring down, eliminating the figure in search of a more direct encounter with the viewer. Still, this earlier training clearly laid the groundwork for his explorations of form, space, and emotion.