Whistler in White Ducks (Whistler: Five Faces)

Mortimer Menpes Australian
 Sitter James McNeill Whistler American

Not on view

At left, Whistler is shown standing at full-length wearing white trousers and black coat. Five additional half-length views are more lightly etched at right. Menpes in "Whistler as I Knew Him" (1904, p. 35) writes how Whistler extended his "artistic conceptions" to his attire: "The idea of wearing white white duck trousers with a black coat was conceived, not in order to be unlike other people, but because they formed a harmony in black and white which he loved. White ducks are cotton trousers popular in England and sometimes associated with dandies. Etching, which usually is printed in black ink on white paper, is a medium perfectly suited to the subject.

Whistler in White Ducks (Whistler: Five Faces), Mortimer Menpes (Australian, Port Adelaide 1855–1938 Pangbourne, England), Etching on chine collé

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Whistler in White Ducks (Whistler: Five Faces), Mortimer Menpes (Australian, Port Adelaide 1855–1938 Pangbourne, England), Etching on chine collé
Whistler in White Ducks (Whistler: Five Faces), Mortimer Menpes (Australian, Port Adelaide 1855–1938 Pangbourne, England), Etching on chine collé

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