Technique

Mother and child reclining, The Hunterian

A woman and a baby asleep on a sofa, The Hunterian

It was, like A woman and a baby asleep on a sofa [M.1304], drawn on thin transparent transfer paper prepared by Henri Belfond (fl. 1891-1894) of the Imprimerie Belfond & Cie, with gum coating on the side intended for a drawing in lithographic crayon. By mistake, Whistler drew on the un-gummed side, and as a result the crayon drawing could not be transferred to stone and printed. Instead, as Spink et al point out, he carefully drew over the composition in pen and ink, probably on the gummed side, although due to the transparency of the paper this is hard to establish.. 1 Not all the lines of the original crayon drawing were redrawn in ink: her hands and torso, and to left of her feet, there are several faint crayon lines visible, but not redrawn.