Lithograph on antique cream laid paper, 1894-95. 150x236 mm; 5 7/8x9 1/4 inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). Edition of approximately only 58 in both states combined. Signed with the butterfly in pencil, lower left. A very good impression of this extremely scarce lithograph.
A representation of Whistler's wife, Beatrix ("Trixie") and his sister-in-law Ethel Birnie Philip at their home at 110, rue de Bac, Paris. Beatrix is shown tired-looking and reclining in a chair, possibly an early sign of the fatigue caused by the fatal cancer that would be diagnosed several months later.
According to Spink, there were 46 impressions of this lithograph in the artist's estate and more than half of them were signed. "Whistler seems to have withdrawn this image from circulation and sale, possibly because of its painful association with his wife's illness . . . (his) desire to withhold the lithographs during his lifetime no doubt also influenced Rosalind Birnie Philip's decision to have the stone destroyed without posthumous reprintings," (Spink, p. 340). Way 71; Levy 105; Spink 109.
