?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
JAMES A. M. WHISTLER Fumette.
Etching on Chine collé, 1859. 163x110 mm; 6 3/8x4 1/4 inches, wide (full ?) margins. Fourth state (of 4). Ex-collection Anderson Rose; sold Sotheby's London, June 1876, lot 660; and William Richard Drake (Lugt 736), according to an inscription in pencil, lower right recto. A brilliant, early impression with warm plate tone and all the finest details printing clearly.
Fumette, or 'Racy' as her nickname translates, was also known as 'La Tigresse' because of her hot temper. Her real name was Héliose; she was milliner from the Latin Quarter of Paris and one of Whistler's models and mistresses during the late 1850s. The solidness of the figure, set against a blank background, is typical of many Whistler portraits from this period. Fumette was also the model for several of Whistler's other etchings (Kennedy 3, 15, 56, 57 and 59).
This etching was made in the summer of 1858, before Whistler left on his sketching trip for the Rhine. This is a particularly early impression, printed by Delâtre in Paris on Chine collé, before the impressions of the 'French Set' printed in London for Serjeant Thomas. Kennedy 13.
