Drypoint on tissue-thin, cream laid Japan paper, 1863. 199x132 mm; 7 5/8x5 1/4 inches, full margins. MacDonald's fourth state (of 6). A superb, richly-inked impression of this very scarce print.
We have found fewer than 10 other impressions of this subject at auction in the past 30 years; MacDonald cites approximately only 30 known impressions.
The model is Joanna Hiffernan (born circa 1843), Whistler's red-headed Irish mistress; she was also the sitter for Whistler's famous painting, Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl, 1861, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Whistler granted Hiffernan power of attorney over his affairs in London while he was in Valparaíso in 1866; she acted as agent for the sale of his works during this period too. The same year, she traveled to Paris to pose for Gustave Courbet's Le Sommeil, 1866, now in the Musée du Petit Palais, Paris; it seems likely that Courbet and Hiffernan also had an affair at the time. Whistler and Hiffernan parted ways soon after his return from Valparaíso.
According to Lochnan, "Few impressions were taken, largely because of the speed with which the burr would have worn. They are printed for the most part in black ink on very thin, silky Japon mince which enhances the aesthetic beauty and delicacy of the subject," (The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1984, page 149). MacDonald notes that some early impressions, like the one at the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Istitution, Washington, D.C., were printed on tissue-thin Japan paper like the current impression. She adds that roulette was used to reinforce the shadows in the fifth state; the current impression was printed prior to the additional shading. Kennedy 92; Glasgow 93.
