David Pulling on a Rope 1925

Curator: Here we have Denman Waldo Ross's "David Pulling on a Rope," from 1925, part of the Harvard Art Museums collection. Editor: My first thought? It's a beautiful struggle. The figure's strain, caught in these very tentative lines, feels so real. Curator: Ross was deeply interested in the mechanics of representation, particularly classical ideals. The grid and notations across the sketch reveal an emphasis on proportion and form. Editor: Absolutely, but look at the raw emotion beneath that geometry! It's like watching someone wrestle with their own potential, a very universal theme of the David story. Curator: Indeed. This drawing offers insights into the academic process of figure drawing at the time, as well as Ross's exploration of traditional subjects in a modern context. Editor: It leaves me thinking about the beauty in incompleteness, the power in the suggestion of a story rather than its full realization.