UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: obach

Seymour Haden, Jr, Seated

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46716)
Number: 9
Date: 1857/1858
Medium: etching
Size: 137 x 98 mm
Signed: 'J Whistler' at lower left (obscured by shading)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 24
Catalogues: K.29; M.6; T.16; W.22
Impressions taken from this plate  (24)

KEYWORD

boy seated, clothing, dress, kilt, portrait.

TITLE

The main alternatives in title, concerning whether or not to name the sitter, are given below:


'Seymour Haden - Junr.' (1870s, Whistler). 2
'Seymour Haden, seated' (1872, British Museum). 3
'A Little Boy' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 4
'Seymour Haden' (1881, Union League Club). 5
'A Little Boy (Seymour Haden)' (1900, Caxton Club). 6
'The Little Boy' (1903, Obach's). 7
'Seymour, Seated' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 8


The revised title 'Seymour Haden, Jr, Seated' distinguishes this etching from another portrait of the same sitter, Seymour, Standing [10],

2: Inscribed on Graphic with a link to impression #K0290108.

3: B.M. Print Room Register of Purchases ... 1872.

4: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 16).

5: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 32-3).

6: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. 22).

7: London Obach 1903 (cat. no. 23).

8: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 6).

DESCRIPTION

A young boy, Francis Seymour Haden, Jr (1850-1918), is seated looking to left. His hair is thick and wavy, reaching his collar, with a heavy fringe. A black ribbon-like cravat is tied round his short, turn-down collar; his jacket fastens with a single button, at the top; a loosely gathered skirt or kilt, with a broad band or ribbon just above the hem, reaches just below his knees; he wears long plaid socks, and light-weight shoes, possibly dancing shoes.

SITTER

Francis Seymour Haden, Jr (1850-1918). Whistler wrote: ' "Seymour Haden, Junr." ' on an impression for Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0290108?).

DISCUSSION

Seymour is wearing the same dress as in Seymour, Standing [10]. Thomas and Wedmore identified the skirt as 'Scotch' but it is not really Scottish; it is certainly not a tartan kilt, but more a loose kilt typical of Victorian boy's winter dress.