Technique

Modèle nu, debout, passant une robe, The Hunterian

The image is 236 x 135 mm, or 291 x 204 mm including registration marks and trials of the crayon. It was drawn on papier végétal prepared by the lithographic printer Henri Belfond (fl. 1891-1894) with gum coating on the side intended for a drawing in lithographic crayon. Whistler may have planned for it to be printed as a colour lithograph (hence the registration marks). By mistake, he drew on the un-gummed side, so the crayon drawing could not be transferred to stone and printed. Instead, he carefully drew over the composition in pen and ink. However, it is not absolutely certain (because of the extreme thinness of the paper) that the crayon drawing was on one side and the pen on the other. 1