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

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Dancing girl, on a fan

Composition


                    Dancing girl, on a fan, Private Collection
Dancing girl, on a fan, Private Collection

In 1910 Whistler's painting on the fan was described as a drawing of a faun but the figure is a dancing woman, not half-human, half-goat. 1


                    Sketch for a fan, Freer Gallery of Art
Sketch for a fan, Freer Gallery of Art

Whistler made a detailed preliminary study for his spoke, Sketch for a fan [M.1422].

Technique

Whistler's figure is painted in watercolour on a circle, and signed with a butterfly, from which a long barbed tail curves down the spoke of the fan. The inner edges of all twenty spokes are painted with peacock feathers.

Notes:

1: Sotheby's, London, 4 May 1910 (lot 195).

Last updated: 28th May 2021 by Margaret