Portrait Sketch of a Woman with Mantilla

Portrait Sketch of a Woman with Mantilla is a bust likeness of a woman in profile, turned to the left, with a sheer mantilla or veil over the dark hair gathered up behind her head. A flat dark background is rendered by an area of parallel strokes of graphite that frames her head. The woman’s profile is rather heavily worked in a manner uncharacteristic of William Merritt Chase, and in contrast to the technique he used for his Sketch of a Man, Whistling (TF 1999.31b) on the other side of this sheet, which once was part of a sketchbook. Both Portrait Sketch of a Woman with Mantilla and Sketch of a Man, Whistling may well date to Chase’s student days in Munich, Germany. Indeed, the woman’s dress, particularly her mantilla, suggests a European subject.