A woman and a baby asleep on a sofa 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 several 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).
A woman and a baby asleep on a sofa, The Hunterian
It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1304).
A woman and a baby asleep on a sofa, The Hunterian
A woman and a baby asleep on a sofa, The Hunterian
Possibly Rose Amy Pettigrew (1872-1958) and her niece.
It was, lik
A woman and a baby asleep on a sofa, The Hunterian
e Mother and child reclining m1305, 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. 2
It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.
By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's Gift, this work cannot be lent to another venue.
1: Spink 1998 [more], at vol. 1, 'Untransferred Lithographic Drawings', p. 503 (cat. no. V).
2: Spink 1998 [more], at vol. 1, 'Untransferred Lithographic Drawings', p. 503 (cat. no. V).