Title Page from the "French Set" (Douze Eaux-Fortes d'Après Nature)
James McNeill Whistler American
Printer Auguste Delâtre French
Not on view
Whistler here depicts himself outdoors working on a copper plate surrounded by fascinated children. The image responds to a Rhineland tour he made in the summer and fall of 1858 and was used to introduce "Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" (Twelve Etchings from Nature), the artist's first published set. The title indicates his realist affinities with lettering added to credit Auguste Delâtre as printer and dedicating the work to Seymour Haden. As Whistler’s brother-in-law, the latter had encouraged his first serious etchings. Even when dressed in a loose traveling suit, the artist cuts a dashing figure, with romantically long hair and a beribboned hat. Thomas Winans, who financed Whistler's move to Paris in 1855, once owned this print, and his descendants left it to the Museum.
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