Lithograph printed on thick Japanese paper, c.1891
One of a group of six lithographs of draped figures probably drawn in late October or early November 1891 when Whistler spent a week working on colour lithographs with the Parisian printer Belfond. Like Draped Figure, standing (above), Whistler may have intended to develop this image as a colour print, but only a few proofs exist and they are all printed from one stone, most of them on the Japanese paper that Belfond preferred for proofing.
Especially in the 1890s, Whistler preferred teenage girls as models for thinly draped nudes. In his ‘Ten O’Clock’ lecture (1888) he described the ancient Greek inspiration of ‘the measured rhyme of lovely limb and draperies flowing in unison’, a theme shared by the Symbolist poet Mallarmé and his circle.
Bequeathed by G. J. F. Knowles 1959
Collections record: P.94-1959
