David Smith made drawings throughout his career, sometimes as studies for his
sculptures. Unlike the slow process and large amount of work required to make a sculpture, drawing allowed Smith to work quickly and
spontaneously, forming images from his imagination into shapes on paper. While working at his home in Bolton Landing, New York, he often spent the day making sculptures in his factory-like
studio, and in the evening he would draw in his “clean studio.” Smith once described his drawings as “studies for sculpture, sometimes what sculpture is, sometimes what sculpture never can be.”
Even though it may look like a flattened version of one of his sculptures,
Eng No. 6 is not a study for another work. Instead, it is a work of art in itself. For this drawing, Smith used a
tempera mixture made with egg yolk that can be applied with soft and stiff brushes, resulting in bold
gestures and drips of paint. The curvy,
abstract shapes resemble the fragments of tools that Smith incorporated into his
three-dimensional work.
