Technique

Scene from Bohemian life, Art Institute of Chicago

An intricately detailed work, employing many different shading, cross-hatching, scribbling and dotting marks. 1 Stephanie Strother comments on the uneven finish, lighting, and chiaroscuro:

' In some areas, his use of line and shading is tight and controlled, while in others it is loose and sketchy. Some passages—such as the rightmost male and female figures—are treated in a detailed, three-dimensional manner, while others—such as the bottom half of the female figure at left and her male companion—look incomplete, their forms described mainly by outlines. Near the center of the drawing, line and shading disappear from the composition almost entirely, leaving the centermost woman’s body undescribed from the chest down. … Chiaroscuro effects that seem to originate from multiple light sources are carefully represented in the silhouetted male figure in the foreground and in the shadow cast by another male figure on the wall in the background, as well as in the play of light across the faces of the two rightmost figures. These dramatic lighting effects are completely ignored, on the other hand, in other sections of the composition. Such disparities give the drawing a distinctly improvisational quality. ' 2