Henry Pearson

This drawing, together with another (Early Geometric, 1958) and a sketchbook (1957) date 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 (b.1911) at the Art Students League of New York, this sampling shows the artist experimenting with various styles and techniques. The images of figure models, street musicians, and posed skeletons in Pearson's sketchbook 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). In the two independent drawings Pearson experimented with both lyrical and geometric abstraction, two modes he would eventually combine in the cartographic linear style that would characterize his mature work.