The finest charcoal figure drawing in the collection — a large horizontal composition in which a reclining nude is seen from the side, her upper body propped against a support, her legs extending to the lower right. The charcoal is handled with sustained tonal control: the dark zones at the hair, the shadow under the raised arm, and the background tonal field all built from multiple blended passes, the light zones preserved as the white of the paper.
The figure's posture is the most composed and the most consciously arranged in the charcoal series: the head rests on the raised arm in the attitude of someone thinking or daydreaming, the body at ease, the composition structured around a diagonal that runs from the dark hair at upper left to the feet at lower right. This diagonal gives the drawing its energy without urgency — it is a resting diagonal, not a falling one.
The background — broad charcoal strokes in the upper right and lower left — creates an environment rather than a void. The figure exists in a space with atmosphere, not simply against paper. This environmental approach is unusual in the figure drawings, most of which isolate the figure against the unmarked paper.
The feet at lower right are the most specifically described element: the toes individually indicated, the ankle's turn described, the shadow beneath the foot giving it weight and contact with the surface.