Etching and drypoint on cream laid Japan paper, 1859. 152x228 mm; 6x9 inches, full margins. Second state (of 2). A superb, well-inked impression with all the finest lines printing clearly and with crisp, inky plate edges.
The model for Venus is Fumette, Whistler's Parisian mistress of the late 1850s. Her pose resembles Rembrandt's nudes, notably the figure in Jupiter and Antiope, etching, 1659 (Bartsch 203). While the sensuality of the subject recalls nude paintings by the French painter Gustave Courbet from around this time. Kennedy 59.
