Enfant de Choeur de Cologne 1858

This is a drawing by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, titled Enfant de Choeur de Cologne, or Choirboy from Cologne. It's rendered simply in graphite pencil on paper. You can see the quality of the line-work here, with rapid strokes indicating the boy’s vestments, his plain, dark robe and even the chalice at his feet. Whistler was trained in the tradition of academic drawing, where tonal control and precise articulation of form were key. But here, he uses the inherent qualities of the graphite to produce a sketch that has an unfinished feel. The effect suggests a rapid notation of form and texture. Perhaps the artist was eager to seize the character of his subject. You could also say that Whistler was consciously deploying the look of a sketch, to imply an effortless freedom of expression. This would have been very much in keeping with the aesthetic ambitions of the time, when even paintings were supposed to convey a quality of immediacy and sensation. So here we see a confluence of the artist’s practice, and wider social and cultural values, all mediated by a simple pencil.