A large horizontal figure drawing in ink rather than pencil, chalk, or blue pencil — the only ink figure drawing in the collection. The medium transforms the contour: ink is unforgiving, cannot be erased, and dries immediately. Every mark is final. The line that traces this compressed reclining figure — from the rounded back at the upper left, down through the waist and hip, to the extended legs and specifically described feet at the lower right — is drawn with the absolute confidence that ink demands.
The ink line is the collection's most decisive mark. It varies in weight — the darker pressure points at the hip and knee versus the thinner passages along the back and legs — giving the form its three-dimensional character through line weight alone rather than through tonal buildup.
The compressed reclining pose — the body folded, the hip rising, the legs extending — is described in a single fluid gesture. The feet at the lower right are described with the characteristic toe-by-toe attention, even in ink, even at full confidence.
The use of ink places this drawing in the tradition of the great contour figure drawing masters — Matisse, Picasso, Klimt — who used ink to demonstrate that a body can be captured in one unwavering line. Sidney drew his version of that challenge here.