A large-format hand study in pencil — the dominant element a single hand, seen from slightly above, the fingers spread and extended, the palm down on a surface or the hand resting flat. The hand is described with sustained tonal attention: shadow marks at each finger's underside, at the webbing between the fingers, at the wrist's interior crease, and at the hand's outer edge all build the hand as a three-dimensional form rather than as a silhouette. The nails of the four visible fingers are each individually described. At the upper left, a small sphere is sketched as a separate study — possibly an apple or ball, the roundness contrasting with the hand's flatness.
The hand as subject connects this study to Work 1553's hand-at-the-child's-face, where the hand appeared in close proximity to a face; but here the hand is autonomous, studied for its own form without relation to any other body part. The collection's sustained interest in hands — from the specific finger marks in the figure drawings to the individual toes of the foot studies — culminates here in a dedicated hand study at large scale.
The 19 by 25 format gives the spread hand room to expand: the fingers at full extension occupy much of the sheet's width, and the hand's depth from wrist to fingertip occupies much of the sheet's height. The tonal attention — the hatching at the shadow zones — gives the hand sculptural presence, the form understood as volume and surface rather than as outline. This is the hand observed with the same sustained academic attention that the large nude studies (1623) bring to the figure.