The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Mother and child reclining was originally intended as a lithograph, which may have been drawn in Paris in late October or early November 1891. ¹ It is dated by comparison with the several drawings and lithographs including Mother and Child, No. 3 c052, Mother and Child, No. 2 c053 and Mother and Child, No. 4 c054. However, the pen drawing may have been done later (Whistler used purple ink during the period 1892-1894).

Mother and child reclining, The Hunterian

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1305) dated '1890/1894'.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Mother and child reclining, The Hunterian

Possibly Rose Amy Pettigrew (1872-1958) and her niece.

Technique

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 m1304, 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.. ² 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.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1958: bequeathed by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1305).
• Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998, vol. 1, 'Untransferred Lithographic Drawings', pp. 503-05 (cat. no. VI) as 'Mother and Child Reclining'.

Journals 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Whistler's Lithographs', Print Quarterly, vol. 5, March 1988, pp. 20-55, at p. 54.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.