Mary Pickford’s marriage to Douglas Fairbanks rendered them Hollywood’s most powerful couple during cinema’s silent era. Known as the “girl with the curls”, Pickford’s hair became one of her most defining on-screen features. 189 Here, Fowler elects to draw Pickford having her hair washed over a sink. This intimate, yet somewhat intrusive backstage portrayal, sees the actress bent double and disappearing into the undefined void of the sink — deliberately simplified by the artist. The paper has been cut and curled, bringing the image into relief whilst the viewer is drawn into the vortex of the actress’s deadened gaze.