Study of a woman and child

The woman's seated pose is remarkably dynamic: as she turns to gaze over her shoulder, curls tumble from her coiffure, and folds of drapery spill across her lap, revealing slender legs crossed at the ankles. By contrast to the careful articulation of her face, her fingers are only schematically indicated, while the contours of the child's naked body are succinctly described in short strokes of black chalk. This rare compositional study by Sir Joshua Reynolds--the leading British portrait painter of the eighteenth century, first president of the Royal Academy, an influential theoretician of art, and a distinguished collector--is not related to any known painting. But its allusion to the Madonna and Child, and severely classicizing, Michelangelesque style link it to the artist's most accomplished grand-manner portraits of the 1770s.