Red and white chalk on blue paper, 43 by 29 cm

Guthrie won the composition prize during his time as student at the Slade School of Art in the early 1920s. He later became director of the School of the Museum of Fine Art in Boston where he developed a notable reputation in the field of portrait drawing. He was a member of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters where a prize for this genre of drawing was later awarded in his name.