A large horizontal charcoal figure drawing — the figure reclining on the ground, propped on one arm, looking outward with the direct gaze that characterizes the most memorable life drawings. The charcoal medium gives the figure its physical weight: the dark marks at the shadows, the hair, the deeper zones all building a body that is present and heavy.
The composition extends across the horizontal paper: the figure from the face at the upper right to the legs and feet at the lower left. Both the face and the feet are carefully described — the face with charcoal's tonal capacity for three-dimensional modeling, the feet with the individual toe marks.
The direct gaze is the drawing's psychological event: the figure has looked toward Sidney and the drawing records the moment. The charcoal face — more tonal than a pencil or chalk face, the shadows deeper — has a quality of physiognomy, of a specific person's specific features rather than a generic life drawing face.
The charcoal makes the most of the reclining pose: the darkest marks at the hair and the deepest shadows give the figure visual weight that lighter media don't achieve. This is a body that rests on the ground with actual gravity.