Etching, 1859. 227x153 mm; 8 7/8x6 inches, wide margins. MacDonald's second state (of 2), restored after cancellation. A richly-inked impression with warm plate tone.
In this etching of his friend, the Parisian sculptor and collector Charles Drouet (1836-1908), Whistler finished only the sitter's head, leaving the body outlined by lightly-sketched lines, as was typical of his portraits at the time.
The art dealer Frederick Keppel acquired this plate after it had been cancelled with only a couple of lightly-etched diagonal lines through the background and face. He had the master-printer Frederick Goulding burnish away the cancellation lines and print impressions that were sold against Whistler's will. On these impressions, which greatly outnumber the pre-cancellation impressions, remnants of the cancellation lines are visible through Drouet's left eye and the bridge of his nose. Kennedy 55; Glasgow 35.
