Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

 

M.0460
Japanese lady decorating a fan

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1872
Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
Accession Number: 1933.222.a
Medium: chalk and pastel
Support: brown wove paper
Size: 10 3/4 x 6 3/4" (274 x 172 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: none

Japanese lady decorating a fan

Composition

Japanese lady decorating a fan, Cleveland Museum of Art
Japanese lady decorating a fan, Cleveland Museum of Art

On 20 March 1872 Sir Henry Cole commissioned Whistler to design a figure of 'a Japanese art worker' for an arch in South Kensington Museum. 1 This drawing is one of several possible ideas for the figure, which was never completed.

Draped female figure, Freer Gallery of Art
Draped female figure, Freer Gallery of Art
The Dancing Girl, Private Collection
The Dancing Girl, Private Collection

The drawing on the verso is one of several similar studies that include r.: A study of a draped female figure; v.: Design [M.0377] , Draped female figure [M.0378] and The Dancing Girl [M.0379].

Technique

The figure on the verso has numerous pentimenti. The proportions have not been satisfactorily drawn: her right arm, crossing the body and holding the drapery, it too long in relation to her body, and her right leg is rather disjointed. This may be the first of several related studies mentioned above.

Notes:

1: GUW #05518.

Last updated: 23rd February 2021 by Margaret