Woman Resting on a Platform

Henry Stacy Marks · n.d.

Medium

Black pastel, heightened with white gouache, on blue laid paper

Original size

29.3 × 34.5 cm (11 9/16 × 13 5/8 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Romanticism

A study in quiet stillness, this drawing captures a seated woman in repose with an economy of line that reveals Marks's mastery of tonal draftsmanship. Henry Stacy Marks was a prominent figure in Victorian British art, best known for his witty paintings of birds — particularly herons and cranes — though his draughtsmanship extended well beyond his celebrated avian subjects. Working in black pastel heightened with white gouache on blue laid paper, he exploited the mid-tone of the support itself as a third value, a classical technique that gives the figure its sense of gentle, ambient light. The restrained palette — near-monochrome, with just the cold blue ground breathing through — lends the composition an intimacy rarely achieved in more elaborate media. Marks was elected a full member of the Royal Academy in 1883 and was regarded by contemporaries as one of the most technically versatile draughtsmen of his generation, equally at home with satirical illustration and refined figurative work. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates the tonal subtlety of the original into a medium that carries its own warmth and depth, preserving the delicate interplay of light and shadow while giving the image the physical presence that only oil on canvas can provide.