Katharine M. Stocks

Katharine M. Stocks used to lurk in the corners at London art shows, sketchbook hidden under her shawl, watching people watch the paintings. She turned that habit into Wallflowers, a watercolor of shy women in tepid rooms, their faces half-turned from the light, as if they’d just noticed the party had started without them. The picture asks you to stare back, then feel rude for doing it.

Hunt it down in the British Museum’s Prints & Drawings room; the case is small, the paper even smaller, but the faces are huge.