I feel both full of love and full of the idea of love every time I look at this drawing. The way those fingers knit over our man's chest, just below that fabulous bowtie and in between the floating shirt buttons-- what a perfect distillation of the feel of a heart a'flutter in springtime!

The 1955 drawing is an early work by James Frederic Bone (1929-2015), executed in ink (black, which reads more as dark brown now, and red for stripes on the bowtie). On the reverse, Bone has written "Steig admirer, obviously," referring to William Steig, most famous for his New Yorker cartoons.

What I know about James Bone is that he was born in Brownsville, Texas, received his MFA from the University of Arkansas, and moved to the Hyde Park section of Chicago, IL in the 1970s. I've found some citations of art reviews he wrote for the Chicago Reader in the 1980s, and know that he was creating drawings up until very near to the time of his death.

8 1/2" x 11". Signed and dated at bottom right. Overall very good condition. There is a black ink spot/spatter on the knee of the figure and few other small stains / minor foxing, but it still reads fresh and crisp.