A large horizontal red chalk reclining figure drawing of unusual compositional specificity — the hand, placed at the center of the composition, is drawn with the most sustained attention of any element. The figure reclines with the face at the upper right (profile, barely described) and the lower body extending to the left. At the center, the hand rests or touches the body, its fingers individually described with the characteristic Cothran finger-by-finger attention.
The hand at the composition's center is the formal statement: in a drawing of near-total economy otherwise, this one zone is fully realized. Four fingers visible, the slight tension of a resting hand, the wrist transitioning to the forearm above — these specific marks make the hand the composition's emotional core.
The body surrounding the hand is described with the most minimal marks in any sanguine figure: the outer contour barely present, the form implied rather than stated. Face, torso, hip, leg — each zone brushed in with the lightest marks, present but not insisted upon.
The red chalk on the warm cream paper gives the minimal marks their warmth. This body is barely there — but the hand is entirely there.