A painter, photographer, printmaker, and draftsman, Charles Sheeler became the major exponent of Precisionism, a style that employed clean-cut lines, simple forms, and sharp focus. He was part of the New York avant-garde art world that also included Charles Demuth and others associated with Alfred Stieglitz. In his quest for elegant simplification, Sheeler was drawn to a wide variety of sources, from Shaker artifacts to modern industrial architecture. His keen eye and delicate touch oscillate between realism and abstraction in this depiction of a section of a woman’s torso.