Measure

A crowd of men, stripped to the waist and straining forward, hauls a huge drum-shaped tank suspended from long wooden poles across their shoulders; in the foreground more figures pull on ropes and braces wrapped around the vessel, backs arched and feet planted in mud. A lone dog stands off to one side, watching the procession move through an open, featureless field.

Rendered entirely in charcoal, the drawing builds form through dense hatching and smudged tonal masses, leaving faces loosely suggested while the straining arms, backs and gripping hands are worked into sharp, deliberate detail. The diagonal thrust of the poles and bodies gives the composition strong forward momentum, and the scene reads as a study of collective physical effort.