Gants de suède

James Abbot McNeill Whistler (1834–1903)

1890

Signed in the stone to the right with a butterfly

Lithograph on smooth wove cream paper

219 x 104 mm

Blind stamp of The Studio, which published this plate in 1894, p. 20. [See commentary below]

Twenty-eight separate proofs were also pulled by hand by Thomas Way; after Whistler's death twenty-five more proofs were pulled by Frederick Goulding, and then the stone was erased.

Library of Congress, Washington, D. C.

Click on image to enlarge it

Formatting by George P. Landow. Text from Getscher. The Stamp of Whistler, p. 41.

Commentary by Robert W. Getscher

Gants de suède is a late female variant of Whistler's sending portrait style, which developed in the early years with his portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Leyland. The figure is very lightly handled, as Whistler tended to do in his lithographic portraits, and stands half encased in shadow. The motif of the gloves, from which the lithograph takes its name, was originally explored in Arrangement in Black: Lady in a Yellow Buskin—Lady Archibald Campbell (Philadelphia Museum of Art, ill. in Sutton, Whistler, pl. 93), first exhibited in 1884, and part of Whistler's first major portrait commission after his return from Venice. It is not surprising then that Whistler would be pleased to publish a variant of this successful portrait in The Studio, the most widely circulated art periodical of its day, which did more than any other periodical to spread the ideas and works of Whistler abroad, throughout England, Europe, and America. In addition to Gants de suede. The Studio also published The Long Gallery, Louvre (Way 52), La Robe Rouge (Way 68), Savoy Pigeons (Way 118), and later The Smith's Yard (Way 88). Lithographs for periodicals were not printed from the original stones, but three or four transfers were made so that they could be mass-produced more easily. [The Stamp of Whistler, p. 41].

References

Getscher, Robert W. The Stamp of Whistler. Exhibition catalogue. Oberlin, Ohio: Allen Memorial Art Museum, 1977. Catalogue number 15.

---

Victorian
Web

Artists

James M.
Whistler

Etchings &
Engravings

Next

Last modified 11 January 2012