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Gallery Talk: Drawing Materials and Techniques in Sketch, Shade, Smudge—A Conservator’s Perspective

This sepia-toned drawing shows a man leaning back on his knees with dark smudges behind his head. Drapery is around his waist.
John Singer Sargent, Kneeling Male Nude with Drapery, c. 1890–1915. Charcoal with erasure and smudging on blue modern laid paper. Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Gift of Mrs. Francis Ormond, 1937.9.6.

Gallery Talk

In-Person
Harvard Art Museums
32 Quincy Street, Cambridge, MA

This event does not require registration; see further details below.

Conservator Abby Schleicher will highlight drawing materials and techniques seen in works in the special exhibition Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black. She will describe how the physical evidence left by artists’ hands—on paper and media, and through mark-making—can deepen our understanding of these works.

Sketch, Shade, Smudge: Drawing from Gray to Black celebrates the act of drawing using familiar tools—charcoal, chalk, crayon, and graphite. Each type of material has distinctive properties: charcoal can be intensely rich and velvety, or delicately gray and suggestive, while graphite is slippery, shiny, and easy to erase. Crayon is deeply black and waxy, whereas chalk can be crumbly and diffuse. The creative manipulations of these media—smudging, scraping, and erasing—make them versatile tools for adding intensity, depth, precision, and expression to an artist’s vision.

Led by:
Abby Schleicher, Assistant Paper Conservator, Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies

Please check in with museum staff at the Visitor Services desk in the Calderwood Courtyard to request to join the gallery talk. Talks are limited to 18 people and are available on a first-come, first-served basis; no registration is required.

The Harvard Art Museums offer free admission every day, Tuesday through Sunday. Please see the museum visit page to learn about our general policies for visiting the museums.

Support for this exhibition is provided by the Martha Tedeschi Exhibition Fund, made possible by The Lunder Foundation-Peter and Paula Lunder Family; the Alexander S., Robert L., and Bruce A. Beal Exhibition Fund; the Anthony and Celeste Meier Exhibitions Fund; the Rabb Family Exhibitions Fund; and the Annemarie Henle Pope Special Exhibitions Fund. Related programming is supported by the M. Victor Leventritt Lecture Series Endowment Fund.

The Harvard Art Museums are committed to accessibility for all visitors. For anyone requiring accessibility accommodations for our programs, please contact us at am_register@harvard.edu at least 48 hours in advance. Please include the name and date of the program in the subject line of your email.