In this 1967 pastel on paper, Hans Burkhardt approaches the human figure not as a subject to be resolved but as a site of psychological tension. The form seems to press forward from the surface while simultaneously dissolving back into it, caught in a charged state between presence and absence. Burkhardt's marks carry genuine urgency, favoring expressive vigor over anatomical precision, and the result is a figure that communicates something far more interior than any conventional study would permit. The relatively intimate scale, 54 by 41.3 centimeters, concentrates that energy rather than diffusing it, giving the work an intensity disproportionate to its dimensions. Burkhardt trained under Hans Hofmann in New York during the 1930s before relocating to Los Angeles, where he became a defining voice in the West Coast postwar scene. By 1967 he had long moved past the influence of his teacher, channeling gestural abstraction toward explicitly humanist ends. Where many of his contemporaries were retreating from the figure entirely, Burkhardt insisted on its emotional necessity, particularly through works on paper that allowed for a directness and spontaneity impossible to replicate in larger oil paintings. This piece belongs to that sustained commitment, reflecting a period in which his draftsmanship and his painterly instincts operated as a single, seamless impulse. Signed lower right by the artist and presented in its original frame, the work is in the care of Heather James Fine Art. It represents a compelling entry point into Burkhardt's figurative practice for collectors interested in postwar American expressionism, and it holds its own as a complete and fully resolved statement rather than a preparatory gesture.