Annie
During a stay in London with his sister Deborah Delano Haden while recuperating from a fall, Whistler made this etching of his niece Annie. His brother-in-law, Seymour Haden, a gifted printmaker, encouraged the artist’s first serious efforts in the medium. Here, the emphasis on alternating lights and darks, and the omission of the figure’s legs, demonstrate a greater interest in abstract patterning than portraiture. Whistler gave this print to Thomas Winans, the Baltimore friend who funded his move to Paris in 1855.
Artwork Details
- Title: Annie
- Series/Portfolio: French Set ("Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" 1858) and Winans Scrapbook
- Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
- Sitter: Annie Harriet Haden (British, 1848–1937)
- Date: 1858
- Medium: Etching on tan (darkened) chine mounted on white wove paper (chine collé); fourth state of seven (Glasgow)
- Dimensions: Plate: 4 5/8 × 3 1/8 in. (11.8 × 7.9 cm)
Sheet: 5 11/16 x 4 3/16 in. (14.5 x 10.7 cm) - Classification: Prints
- Credit Line: Gift of Margaret C. Buell, Helen L. King, and Sybil A. Walk, 1970
- Object Number: 1970.121.78
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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