The Study for "The Dreamer" (Caroline Kilby Smith)

Beaux's drawing on canvas is a preliminary draft for the painting "The Dreamer" (Portrait of Caroline Kilby), 1894. This sketch may be an unique revelation of her working method, arrested at the moment of the underdrawing, since it is unlikely that Beaux intended to finish this work in chalks or pastels alone. (She never seems to have worked in charcoal or pastel on canvas to an independent 'final' solution.) Usually her drawings were preparatory studies on paper like the other portrait sketches in the Academy's collection.