Artwork Information

A bust-length watercolour study of a girl wearing a shawl on white ground paper. There is minimal evidence of graphite underdrawing; details around the face, such as animated tendrils of curly dark hair, are delineated with watercolour. Effective contrasting use of diffuse washes and denser colours. Highlights are formed by touches of white paint and by an impressionistic use of broken paintwork that allows glimpses of the white paper to show through. The imposing scale and confidence of execution of this watercolour suggest it was possibly one of the studies Hodgkins exhibited at the Otago Art Society and in Canterbury in 1896 for which she asked the relatively high price of £7-7-0.