UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

hair, head, model, portrait, woman.

Three different titles have been recorded, as follows:


'Fumette' (1870s, Whistler). 1
'Fumette (a head)' (1881, Union League Club). 2
'Fumette's Bent Head' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3


Wedmore's title 'Fumette's Bent Head' has been generally accepted by later cataloguers, as distinguishing this portrait from the earlier portrait published under a similar title, Fumette [12].

On the upper part of the plate appear the head and shoulders of a young woman with long flowing hair, bending forward and facing nearly front, her right hand raised toward her face. In the lower part of the plate, at the right, are traces of a portrait of Whistler wearing a broad-brimmed hat. In the upper left corner are traces of other earlier work. There are horizontal lines in the background at the right.

Eloise ('Fumette') (fl. 1840-1858). She also posed for Fumette [12], Fumette, Standing [59] (reproduced above) and Venus [60]. Wedmore described this head-and-shoulders portrait as showing 'a good humoured young woman'. 4

A vigorous and direct portrait, this is comparable to the later portrait of Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843), who succeeded Fumette as Whistler's mistress and model, Jo [87].