Seated male figure, South Seas; Studies for seated figures

Circa 1923, Swanzy travelled to Honolulu, where she stayed with her aunt, and to Samoa. These drawings of seated and reclining figures, made in pencil and coloured crayons, were evidently made on this visit. Her drawing style is immediately recognisable, and shows a continuity with the earlier life studies made in Paris, and the lively crayon studies of local people in Czechoslovakia. Some of the drawings of Honolulu and Samoa may have been conceived as studies for her paintings made there. The figures of the South Sea islanders fall into natural easy poses. The broad powerful build of the seated man is gained from a life spent in the open air, and rowing in heavy wooded canoes. Swanzy's natural use of coloured crayons conveys this sunny, open-air lifestyle. The rapid terracotta lines made on the drawing of the man's back and arms brilliantly convey a sense of volume. The seated pose, viewed from behind, recalls that of the woman in the life study, while the broad back recalls that of the muscular man.
J.C.