UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Binding the Hair

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1927.5984)
Number: 334
Date: 1887
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 133 x 95 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 4
Catalogues: K.344; M.342
Impressions taken from this plate  (4)

KEYWORD

hair, nude, toilet, woman standing.

TITLE

Only one title is known, as in these examples:


'Binding the hair' (1880s, Whistler). 1
'Binding the Hair' (1889, Whistler). 2
'Binding the Hair' (1902, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 3

1: Written on Graphic with a link to impression #K3440104.

2: Whistler, list, 18 July 1889, #13235.

3: Kennedy 1902 (cat. no. 305).

DESCRIPTION

A nude woman stands facing toward the right, her hands upraised, arranging her hair. The light is from front right, and her shadow falls back and to left. There is some shading in the background.

SITTER

The model has not been identified.

DISCUSSION

This is one of several studies of nudes in the studio, such as Resting by the Stove [372] and 'Venus' (Nettie Pettigrew) [363]. A comparable pose is seen in drawings by Whistler such as r.: A nude pulling a black robe over her head; v.: Cockerel [m1382] and r.: A nude model adjusting her hair; v.: A woman in a toga [m1383], and by Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896), including A nude adjusting her hair and A partially draped nude adjusting her hair. 4

4: Hunterian Art Gallery 46188, 46540, 46541; see http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk.