Like many artists throughout history, William Strang turned to the more commercial business of portraiture to generate income. Between 1898 and 1909 he undertook a long series of portrait-drawings (over 500 in total). Many, like this study, were executed in black and red chalks on paper primed with a pink wash, a technique heavily influenced by Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait drawings of the Court of Henry VIII, which the artist had seen in the collection of the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Strang’s portraits of women are much rarer, and usually less successful, than his portraits of men.