Standing Female Nude 1936

Charles William Smith made this drawing of a standing nude, and it looks like he used charcoal on paper. Imagine him, poised with a stick of charcoal, building up the figure bit by bit. Look at how Smith uses line to suggest the weight and form of the figure. There's a real confidence in his marks – thick lines, sure, but not overworked. The cross-hatching creates shading, giving the body a 3D quality. I bet Smith was really wrestling with how to capture the body’s volume on a flat surface, which is something artists have been trying to do for centuries. He doesn’t fuss too much with detail, but he really gets the essence of the pose. It feels like Smith wanted to show us something fundamental about the human form, a kind of timeless quality. Artists like Smith are always looking to the past, seeing how others have tackled similar problems, and then adding their own voice to the conversation.