?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 25,000 - $ 35,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER The Duet.
Lithograph on antique cream laid paper, 1894. 246x165 mm; 9 3/4x6 1/2 inches, full margins. Edition of approximately 39. Signed with the butterfly in pencil, lower right. A brilliant, luminous and richly-inked impression of this extremely scarce print, with all the subtle tonal variations distinct.
We have found only 7 other impressions at auction in the past 25 years.
Over the course of his long career, Whistler (1834-1903) produced more than 180 lithographs; an oeuvre considered among the most significant of the latter 19th century. However, during his lifetime his lithographs were not widely published nor tremendously sought after and it was only posthumously that Whistler's lithographic works gained wide recognition. He focused on lithography during three distinct periods in his career, the most important and prolific being the third and final phase from 1887 to 1896. Whistler may have been prompted to produce lithographs during this period thanks to his marriage in 1888 to Beatrix Godwin, who apparently favored his lithography. The style of Whistler's lithographs typically matched his etchings, though of a softer, more subtlely-toned nature owing to the medium; they are often delicate and sketch-like scenes observed from life using special transfer drawing papers that would then be sent to his printers to be placed onto the lithographic stone.
The Duet represents an exceptional example from this final period and depicts an intimate scene of Whistler's wife and sister in their Parisian apartment, singing together at the piano with a small lamp illuminating their faces. Portrayals of family members were common subject matter throughout Whistler's career and became particularly prevalent in this final period of his work.
This version of The Duet is a more elaborate rendition of a lithograph of the same subject that Whistler made several weeks earlier. He initially disliked The Duet on viewing proofs and was reluctant to have his London printers, T. R. and Thomas Way, produce an edition of the lithograph. The Ways disagreed with Whistler and insisted that the image was beautifully rendered--harkening to the mastery of Rembrandt--and eventually their persistence paid off and they were given permission to print an edition of the work (they printed approximately 39 impressions as opposed to the standard 25 that Whistler usually requested). Way 64; Levy 95; Spink 104.
