A large, assured pencil portrait — among the finest technically and the most relaxed psychologically. A woman seen in three-quarter view, her hair piled up in a loose mass that rises well above the crown before cascading in waves, her expression one of complete self-possession. She holds a cigarette between her lips — the most casually intimate detail in any portrait, a small domestic fact that places the sitter in a specific moment of real life.
The inscription at lower right, readable with care, appears to include a date — 1991 — making this one of the few dated works in the portrait drawings, and the inscription may also include a name. The 1991 date places this portrait among the later works of Sidney's career, the drawing confidence consistent with mature practice.
The drawing technique is among the finest in the portrait series: the hair described in large sweeping marks that convey its volume without laboring its detail; the face modeled with light tonal buildup at the eye sockets and along the nose; the neck and shoulder described in a single confident curved line. The large warm yellow-cream paper gives the pencil a warmth that the cooler white papers don't achieve.
The cigarette — a simple horizontal mark with a small diamond shape at the lit end — is the detail that makes the portrait live: this person was doing something ordinary when Sidney drew them, and he found the ordinary moment worth preserving.