A full-length frontal standing figure in pencil — the face looking directly at the viewer, the eyes engaged in the most direct gaze of any figure study in the narrow-format portfolio. The figure faces forward in slight three-quarter, the arms at the lower torso in a loose cross, the legs below descending to the feet. The face is the drawing's primary event: the eyes are drawn with the most care in the figure — the brows, the irises with small pupils, the lids — and they look out from the paper with an alertness that makes this figure actively present in a way the more averted or profile-facing figures are not.
The pencil is used here at a medium-light pressure that maintains the characteristic figure-drawing economy while giving the face more tonal development than the body below receives. Shadow marks appear at the eye sockets, the underside of the nose, and below the lips; the body below is drawn with spare contour, the breasts indicated by their lower curves, the arms in a loose crossing position at the abdomen. The feet at the lower edge are given brief but specific toe treatment. The overall mark weight is lighter and more tentative than the bold black chalk works, giving the direct gaze a quality of vulnerability — the eyes meeting the viewer's but the body described almost apologetically.
The crossed arms at the lower torso — not the tight self-clutching grip of Works 1405 and 1430, but a looser resting of the forearms against the belly — recall the arm position of Work 1439's brown-chalk frontal. But where 1439's figure had a composed, inward quality, Work 1460's figure has the eyes open and looking out: the same arm position in a different psychological register. The arms say rest; the eyes say attend.
This is the only pencil work in the 9.5"×25" narrow-format figure sequence — all other works in this format have used chalk media (sanguine, black, green, blue) or ink. The pencil on the narrow vertical strip produces a figure different in character from the chalk works: lighter, more tentative, the line thinner and more searching. The direct gaze in this tentative medium creates an unusual combination — the figure not asserting itself boldly but looking at you quietly, waiting.