Oct 27, 2010 - Sale 2227

Sale 2227 - Lot 57

Price Realized: $ 4,080
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER
Becquet.

Etching and drypoint on antique cream laid paper, 1859. 256x195 mm; 10 1/8x7 3/4 inches, full margins. Second state (of 4). Small coat-of-arms watermark. A brilliant, richly-inked impression with selective wiping and with pentimenti from the previous composition showing clearly at the lower right and upper right of the plate.

This portrait of Becquet, a musician friend of Whistler's, was etched in Paris during the autumn of 1859. Like most of his portraits from this period, the focus is on the face of the sitter, whose profession is suggested by the lightly-sketched cello between the legs. Kennedy 52.