The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Standing figure probably dates from November or December 1893. Spink et al associate it with Little Draped Figure, Leaning c076 and four other lithographs drawn in Paris at this date. ¹ The word 'Faute' (French for fault) confirms that this went to a printer in Paris. The fine grained papier viennois is characteristic of this period.

The butterfly signature is consistent with a date of the mid-1890s. Technique alone would not date it so precisely: similar fine diagonal shading is seen in a lithograph of 1893, The Draped Figure, Back View c077, but also in later drawings such as The Dancer (No.1) m1624, which date from about 1900.

Standing figure, Freer Gallery of Art

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1293), dated '1890/96'.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Standing figure, Freer Gallery of Art

Not identified.

Technique

Technique

Standing figure, Freer Gallery of Art

The technique, with areas of closely worked diagonal shading, is similar to that seen in another lithograph, The Draped Figure, Back View c077, and also in later drawings such as The Dancer (No.1) m1624 and The dancer m1627.

The fine-grained transfer paper was laid down on a heavy wove paper. It has a complex grain, suitable for the lithographic crayon.

Conservation History

The lead-white ground has oxidised, darkening to cream and brown at the edges.

History

Provenance

• 1904: bought from Obach's, London art dealers, by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, 16 May 1904;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1295).

Exhibitions

No lifetime exhibition is recorded.

By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1295) as 'Standing Figure'.
• 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. 507-08 (cat. no. IX) as 'Standing Figure'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 276, pl. 278.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.91, as 'Standing Figure'.