UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: freer gallery

Maud, Standing

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(2007.145)
Number: 169
Date: 1876-1878
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 228 x 152 mm
Signed: butterfly at right (7-final)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 16
Known impressions: 13
Catalogues: K.114; M.113; W.99
Impressions taken from this plate  (13)

KEYWORD

clothing, dress, fashion, full-length, hat, fur, model, portrait, woman standing.

TITLE

There are several variations on the title, as follows:


Possibly 'Miss Franklin in hat standing' (1877, Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890)). 1
'Maude' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 2
'Fur - Tippet - The' (1890/1892, Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896)). 3
'The Fur Tippet' (1903/1935, possibly Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958)). 4
'Maude Standing' (1903, Wunderlich's). 5
'Maude, Standing' (1904, Grolier Club). 6
'Maud, Standing' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 7


In the early states of this etching, Maud Franklin (1857- ca 1941) wore a 'flounced tippet' around her shoulders. However, in later states this was replaced with a fur tippet. The alternative title, and that generally accepted, is 'Maud, Standing'.

1: Howell to Whistler, [6-15 November 1877], GUW #02178.

2: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 99).

3: 'Wedmore calls it Maude', crossed out, in list, GUW #12715.

4: Envelope containing copper plate, University of Glasgow.

5: New York 1903b (cat. no. 81).

6: New York 1904a (cat. no. 105b).

7: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 13).

DESCRIPTION

A young woman stands facing to the left, her face in profile to left, but turning away. Her arms are at her sides, the left arm holding back the train of her dress, the right arm mostly hidden. She wears a hat with a low crown and narrow brim decorated with feathers. Her wavy hair is cut in a fringe, and curls escape under the brim of her hat at the back. She has a tippet with layers of frills around her shoulders. The dress is closely fitted, and has a very slim waist (but no belt), narrow sleeves with a small puff at the shoulder, a flounced or pleated band at the hem, and a bow at the back of the skirt, from which a short train, with a narrow pleated edging, falls in undulating curves. For later changes, see STATES,

SITTER

Comparative image
Maud Franklin, 1880s, detail of photograph,
Library of Congress.

Maud Franklin (1857- ca 1941), Whistler's mistress and chief model from the mid-1870s until Whistler's marriage in 1888. She posed for many portraits in pastel, etching and drypoint, and oils including Arrangement in White and Black [y185] (reproduced below).

Comparative image
Arrangement in White and Black [y185], oil, ca 1876,
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Several oil portraits are missing, such as Harmony in Pink and Red [y192] (reproduced below), which explores a similar composition to this etching, with the face in profile and the figure seen from the back.
Comparative image
Harmony in Pink and Red [y192], oil, 1876/1878,
Whereabouts unknown.
Photograph, Whistler Collection, Glasgow University Library.
The appearance of Maud in the etching - with the emphasis divided between the fashionable dress and a totally recognisable portrait - invites comparison with several drawings (Maud Standing [m0690] and r.: Maud Franklin; v.: Study of Maud Franklin [m0693]), oil paintings, such as Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket [y181], and lithographs, such as The Toilet [c010] (reproduced below). 8

8: MacDonald 2003 , chapter 7, pp. 135-146.

Comparative image
The Toilet [c010], lithotint, 1878,

Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution.