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Drawing of head and torso of woman on brown paper

A woman is seen from the chest up. Her hair is in a bun, and her eyes gaze downward and toward the left. Her chin is tilted downward. She is drawn in dark, sketchy lines, with white lines highlighting her brow, nose, chin, neck, and sleeves. There is also white highlighting on her collar, which appears textured and embellished. More diffuse dark shading is behind the woman’s shoulders, giving the drawing a greater sense of space and distance. The paper of this work is medium brown with flecks of darker brown and two dark stains in the bottom corners.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.605
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Head of a Woman (Elizabeth Dawson?)
Other Titles
Former Title: Miss Leyland
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1872
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/307989

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black, white, and blue chalk on darkened brown wove paper
Dimensions
26 x 18.8 cm (10 1/4 x 7 3/8 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • inscription: verso, l.r., black ink: Whis 232
  • inscription: verso, u.r., graphite: Whistler
  • inscription: verso, lower center, graphite: 17

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Hunt Henderson, New Orleans; his bequest to Tulane University, 1939; its sale to Grenville L. Winthrop, April 1941; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.605
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, J. B. Lippincott/W. Heinemann (Philadelphia, PA and London, England, 1908), vol. I, p. 174
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 243
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), p. 160, no. 442, reproduced
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 402, cat. no. 431, reproduced in b&w

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu