View from the House of Henry Briscoe Thomas, Baltimore

A highly engaging work with seemingly abundant clues to its subject embedded in a meticulously detailed composition, this drawing continues to baffle scholars. The sheet is captivating: stippled overall and enhanced with sgraffito (a scratching technique to reveal the white of the paper), the architectural interior was delineated with the aid of a rule, while the sheer draperies and distant landscape were drawn freehand. The artist apparently overlooked no tiny feature that fell within his observation. The deceptively informative title and the approximate execution date passed down with the drawing through the family of the donor. Yet every attempt to attach the meticulously rendered scene to the Briscoe family has failed.