6. James Abbott McNeill Whistler
(1834-1903)

Tatting

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Whistler, Tatting

Tatting

Etching and drypoint, 1873, 125 x 75 mm., Kennedy 112 only state. Provenance: JRF (blindstamp, not in Lugt). Fine impression in black ink on brownish, laid japan paper with good margins. Tatting is a rather rare plate, as are most of the others of a group of female portraits of 1873, probably because they are all rather private studies, some experimental, some possibly for projected paintings, not made with a market in mind and consequently printed in few examples. Tatting is actually an informal portrait of Maude Franklin, Whistler's new model and mistress. Comparison with La Vieille aux Loques shows just how far Whistler had come from his realistic beginnings (and how he had learned to leave things out). As early as 1867, Whistler verbally disassociated himself from realism and embraced an aestheticism (beauty is in the eye of the artist?) that would fairly well dominate his work and his opinions for the rest of his life.