The first work on the new 12.5"×19" portfolio paper — a narrower, taller format than the standard 19"×25" life-drawing sheets, the shift in proportion immediately apparent. A full-length standing figure in red chalk bends sharply forward over a low pedestal or support, the arms resting on the surface, the face lowered and resting on the forearms. The back curves in a strong arc, the buttocks prominent at the composition's center, the legs descending from the hip to the floor below.
The red chalk on the new white paper — not the aged cream of the sketchbook pages — has a different quality from the earlier sanguine work: the marks are lighter against the cooler white ground, the line more visible in its individual character. The figure's contour is drawn with the characteristic single-line economy, the body's outer edge described without internal elaboration.
The face, visible between the arms as a small zone of features, shows the model's eyes closed or nearly so — the rest and withdrawal of a figure in a held pose, the body in its shape while the mind is elsewhere. The feet below are briefly indicated, the toes suggested.
This first work in the new portfolio format introduces both the paper change and a figure vocabulary that will likely continue — the nude figure on a narrower vertical sheet, the chalk line against white rather than cream. The bent-forward pose, the prominent back and buttocks, and the resting face establish the new sequence's register: intimate, close-observed, the figure in positions of rest and weight.