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

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M.0698
r.: Seated figure; v.: Dragonflies and a butterfly

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1878
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1905.152a-b
Medium: r.: chalk and pastel; v.: chalk and watercolour
Support: brown wove paper
Size: 10 1/2 x 6 13/16" (267 x 173 mm)
Signature: none
Inscription: none

r.: Seated figure; v.: Dragonflies and a butterfly

Sitter

r.: Seated figure, Freer Gallery of Art
r.: Seated figure, Freer Gallery of Art

The figure was believed by C. L. Freer to be Maud Franklin (1857-ca 1941) . 1

Comments

According to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), a 'Sketch of a Lady, seated' was owned by H. E. Morgan in 1912. 2 It shows a model in a similar pose to the figure on the recto of r.: Seated figure; v.: Dragonflies and a butterfly [M.0698], with her left arm resting on the chairback. The lines look weak, and numerous pentimenti display confusion about the pose. The resulting shadows on the woman's face look like a two-days growth of beard. It is possible that it was an abandoned study for this drawing, but, with only the reproduction to go by, it was excluded from the 1995 catalogue. 3

Notes:

1: Note describing it as 'Black, White & Red', annotated by C. L. Freer, 'seated figure of Maude', Freer Gallery of Art.

2: Way 1912 [more] , repr. f.p. 96

3: MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 698).

Last updated: 9th March 2021 by Margaret