Sketchbook

This sketchbook dates to the beginning of Pearson's career as an artist (he had previously worked as a set designer and, in Japan during World War II, as a cartographer for the Army Air Corps). Produced while and shortly after he was a student of Reginald Marsh (1898-1954) and Will Barnet (1911-2012) at the Art Students League of New York, it shows the artist experimenting with various styles and techniques. The images of figure models, street musicians, and posed skeletons fluctuate from a realist style reminiscent of Marsh, to a more simplified, abstracted manner, similar to Barnet (with whom the artist would remain close throughout his life).