A study of a kneeling woman, seen from the left. Executed in black chalk, strengthened with pen and ink, with discoloured white heightening. The sheet is stained with oil. The sheet has been trimmed. Stamped in the lower right corner with a George V blind stamp. 

This study of a kneeling woman was executed in fluid lines of black chalk and heightened in white. The black chalk has been strengthened in places with pen and brown ink. Whilst the modelling of the woman’s face and foot is cursory, the shadows and highlighting on the folds of her dress are strongly picked out. The artist’s interest may have been in capturing the fall of light rather than producing a detailed compositional figural study.

The drawing is executed on coarse blue paper. From the late fifteenth century onwards, blue paper was particularly favoured by Venetian artists. The fibrous quality of the paper used in this drawing catches the soft grainy medium of chalk, allowing the artist to create a richly textured study.

The oil stains across the sheet suggest its studio use, however it has not been decisively connected with a completed painting. Kenneth Clark, in an article for Old Master Drawings (vol. V, 1930), drew comparisons between the study and Mary Magdalene in Palma Giovane’s Entombment, held in the Cook Collection (A catalogue of the paintings at Doughty House Richmond & elsewhere in the collection of Sir Fredrick Cook, Cat. No. 186).

Clark ultimately attributed the study to Jacopo Tintoretto, however the use of pen to strengthen a chalk drawing is uncharacteristic of his work. Stefani Mason Rinaldi has verbally attributed the study to Palma Giovane (c.158-1628), an attribution that was later supported by Mario di Giampaolo. Popham and Wilde attributed it more widely to Tintoretto’s school (Italian drawings of the XV and XVI centuries at Windsor Castle, 1949).