Composition

Both this sketch and an earlier one, Study of 'The Three Girls' [M.0361], differ from the extant oils, in having billowing awnings on the left. Both resemble The White Symphony:Three Girls in having the right hand figure in opaque robes, her stole trailing behind her, carrying a pot in her right hand; and in having blossoms in the upper left corner. Both differ, in omitting the fan from the left hand figure, and defining her clothes less clearly. The central figure looks more like the girl in Pink and Grey: Three Figures, but the pot she is tending is round sided instead of straight.

Conservation History

There is a tiny hole at the top, in the awning, and a dent in the paper to lower right. The paint has faded and the paper, which has a faint, fine diagonally chequered grain, has darkened. Despite this, the colours are bright, like the oil sketch, The White Symphony:Three Girls , rather than the oil copy, Pink and Grey: Three Figure .