This charcoal portrait sketch of Iris reminds me of the words of one of our greatest art historians, Sir John Pope-Hennessy, ‘One of the mysteries of drawing is that the greatest artists can achieve a sense of volume through line alone’ (JP-H, Raphael, p41). This drawing is a means of giving expression to his feelings for his wife. Iris’s head is drawn with a deceptive simplicity and very few lines convey volume. We know he has captured her likeness from other paintings and photographs. There is great delicacy and control on show here in this sketch which also captures the inner mood and personality of his sitter. The portrait is given greater prominence by the dark shading to the background. From the inscription the portrait appears to have been carried out in the couple’s caravan in 1938.