This is one of the portraits Daniel Vázquez Díaz drew of his wife, the Danish painter and sculptor Eva Aggerholm (1882-1959). Although it is a bust portrait, her shoulders have only been sketched in abbreviated lines and lack descriptive details. In contrast, the artist used two different types of shading for her hair and for her face: one that is soft and blurred, generating low intensity gray hues, and another by means of crosshatching signaling the volume of her wavy hair. In establishing these patterns Díaz followed a technique of Cézanne’s: first he drew the lines that defined the shapes and then he applied shading one one side or the other. In this way he was able to preserve the constructive solidity of the drawing but maintain the soft texture of pencil.

The drawing moves from the volume and dynamism of Aggerholm’s dark curls to the flatness of her body through an intermediate layer in which light modulation embodies her static, meditative, serene, and timeless face.