Reg Butler was part of the celebrated generation of post-War sculptors in Britain that included the likes of Lynn Chadwick, Kenneth Armitage, Robert Adams, Elisabeth Frink and Edoardo Paolozzi. The Tate purchased Butler’s Woman from his Hanover Gallery show in 1950 and two years later he was included in the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In 1953, he won the ‘Unknown Political Prisoner’ competition commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Arts and attracting over 3,000 international applicants. Through the 1950s Butler became increasingly preoccupied with the female form, often engaged in a state of undress. These works became more rounded in contrast to the delicate figurative forms of his earlier career. This is evident in the present drawing, a powerful and muscular work that reveals the hand of a sculptor.