Total love at first sight for me with this one, starting with this woman's wonderful, very folky, wide-eyed and double browed face. I've got a great love for 19th century penwork drawings, which were very much a thing, but much less so for the ones that perfectly mimic examples published in instructive books of the period--it's the expressive singularity that makes them special to me, as very much the case here, this one 1850s or so I believe. A marvelous celebration of line and mark and pattern, too--dense and varied and exuberant, feeling as though its maker found pure pleasure in it. Probably they were none too pleased to smear the ink on a bit of the lettering/flourishes at bottom, spelling their name, but such is life!
13 1/4" x 11 1/4"; sight 11 11/16" x 9 1/2" . Much better in hand, black ink strong, on what looks like wove paper to me. Some scattered stains, old vertical and horizontal light fold lines crossing at the center, and what looks like a small tear coming in from right edge toward the tail of the horse. Framed under glass as found, nice period frame, wired on back for hanging.
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