Unknown Maker, Japanese

Birds are the focus of these studies in graphite and ink. Each composition, whether a preparatory sketch or an investigative study, is carefully articulated, revealing the artist’s varied interests and intentions.

Using colored pencils, Joseph Stella meticulously rendered the subject of his study, a wood duck, capturing its feathery texture with layered, repetitive lines. Despite the softness conveyed, Stella also leans into a pronounced angularity, perhaps a hint at his cubist predilections. In contrast, the monochromatic sketches are composed of rapidly executed lines that reveal the artists’ planning processes as they each created a foundational work for a painting or print. [see also 81.233 and 84.230.5].