Sketchbook page with drawings of sculpture 1780s - 1790s

This sketchbook page is rendered in pencil on paper, and we don't know who made it. But the rapid, energetic lines give us some insight into their process. The artist was clearly interested in the human form, and how to represent it in sculpture. Note the way the figures are built up with hatching, a technique also used in printmaking to give the illusion of three dimensions. The sculptor is seen working on a smaller figure, bending over, exerting effort – it's a study of labor. The layering of lines suggests the time and care involved in the act of creation, in contrast with the relative cheapness of paper and pencil. It is through this contrast in materials – a fleeting sketch versus the monumental sculpture it depicts – that we see the artist grappling with the relationship between design and production, between the ideal and the real. This sheet embodies a kind of tension – the artist is trying to figure something out, and we are invited to participate in that intimate process.