UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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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)
Seymour Haden, Jr, Seated probably dates from 1858. It was drawn when Whistler was visiting Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908), and Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910), in London. Seymour was five when Whistler arrived in London in 1855; judging by his dress, this portrait shows Seymour two or three years later, possibly aged seven or eight. It may have been drawn between February and March 1858, when Whistler was convalescing with the Hadens in London. However, it could possibly date from late in the previous year.
The copper plate is almost exactly the same size as another family portrait, Little Arthur [8], which may be of the same date.

It is clear from the sequence of etchings in the early catalogues of Whistler's etchings that Mansfield considered it an early work, while Thomas, Wedmore and Kennedy implied that it was of a slightly later date. 1

1: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 16); Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 22) ; Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 6); Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 29).