Description

A drawing in vertical format, showing a woman in a black dress, standing in near profile to right, with the train of her skirt curved round to the front. Her eyes and nose are roughly indicated, but not the mouth. She has her hair bound with ribbons and held in a chignon or bun. There are white frills at neck and wrist, and she holds a necklace of pale blue beads in her right hand. She stands on a carpet with a chequered band at the far edge, and behind her is a pale blue curtain decorated with a thin band of dots at the top and wider one near the bottom. A few flecks of white suggest blossoms at left.

An unfinished sketch of a woman seen from the back, her hands clasped behind her back. No head is visible. She has narrow sleeves with slight puffs at her shoulders, and a train hangs from below the ruff at her neck, spreading out over the skirt, with folds curving slightly to left, and decorated at right with rosettes.

Sitter

The drawings were studies for portraits of Helen Rose Huth (1837-1924) and Frances Leyland (1834-1910) , but they were not necessarily actually posing for these studies.