UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

child, dog, doorway, people, mother, street.

A house front, drawn parallel to the edge of the copper plate. An open doorway frames four figures: a young woman sits with a baby asleep on her knee; behind her, to the left, sits an older woman; and a man stands in deep shadow behind the old lady and slightly to the left. Just inside the doorway, on the left, a ladder-like frame reaches from ground to ceiling, with some material thrown casually over one of the cross-pieces. Tall wooden doors or shutters open to left and right of the open doorway; the one on the right is constructed from three planks with a hinge near the top, and there is a rough bench standing in front of it. To right of this door or shutter there is a dog sniffing at the ground, and behind the dog, a woman balancing a jar on her head, receding into shadows.

The group, presumably a family, has not been identified.

The street is in Ajaccio, the capital of Corsica.

Whistler drew several similar studies in his sketchbooks: these include Sketches of a woman nursing a child [m1671], Two women and a child [m1672], r.: Seated woman nursing a child; v.: Standing woman [m1673], and particularly Seated mother and child [m1674].

The composition, showing a family of different ages from grandmother to babe in arms, in a doorway, is the last of several similar studies. For instance, Bead Stringers [235] and Fruit Stall [225] were etched in Venice in 1880, and there were several notable examples in the 1890s, including Carpet Menders, Paris [480], Sunflowers, Marché St Germain, Paris [437], and Mme Pelletier, Blanchisserie, Paris [481].