Sketch of the Model Posing

The signature sits in the upper right corner, E Munch 1893, written in orange pastel over a band of yellow and blue hatching. Beyond the date and the title, which calls this a sketch of a model posing, the Guggenheim offers no story for the sheet. The model is not named, and the museum does not connect the drawing to any finished painting. It is large for a sketch, about 76 centimetres high, and Munch drew straight onto brown board, leaving much of it bare, so the colour of the board does the work of her skin. Her head is tipped far back and her face is turned upward. She wears a pale, sleeveless shift, and one arm stretches out to the right edge, into the heavy strokes of dark blue that fill most of the background.