UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Annie Haden

Impression: Hunterian Art Gallery
Hunterian Art Gallery
(46749)
Number: 67
Date: 1860
Medium: drypoint
Size: 357 x 217 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' at lower left
Inscribed: '1860.' at lower left
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 17
Catalogues: K.62; M.62; T.51; W.57
Impressions taken from this plate  (17)

KEYWORD

bonnet, cape, child, clothing, dress, fashion, girl standing, hat, curtain, portrait.

TITLE

There are several minor variations on the title, as follows:


'Dry Point, Portrait' (1874, Pall Mall Galleries). 1
'A Young Lady' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 2
'Portrait of a Young Lady' (1874, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890)). 3
'Annie Haden' (1877, Whistler). 4
'Annie Haden' (1881, Union League Club). 5
'Annie Haden' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 6
'Portrait of Annie Haden' (1893, World's Columbian Exposition). 7


'Annie Haden' was Whistler's title, it was accepted by most later cataloguers, and it was correct, this being a portrait of Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937).

1: London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. no. 50).

2: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 51).

3: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 487).

4: Whistler to Queen Victoria, [19/22 October 1877], GUW #12736.

5: New York 1881 (cat. nos. 79, 80).

6: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 57).

7: Chicago 1893 (cat. no. 2223).

DESCRIPTION

A girl with long hair falling about her shoulders, and wearing a round hat with a curved brim, a long cape, and a full skirt reaching to mid-calf, stands in front of a curtain, turning slightly to the right, but looking toward the front. A faint sketch of a girl's head (mostly her hair) is faintly visible upside down, below the cloak.

SITTER

Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937) was at this time twelve years old. This would have been drawn in the house of her parents Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908) and Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) in Sloane Street, London. In the 1870s Whistler wrote, 'One of my very best -' on a good impression in the collection of Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) (Graphic with a link to impression #K0620201).

DISCUSSION

Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) was critical of the fashions of 1860 as shown in this drypoint:
'A girl, apparently of ten years old, in the ugly dress of 1860. She is standing against a curtain. She wears a soup-plate, and her cloak and frock assume the shape of a pyramid, below the base of which are seen her slender legs. She wears slight shoes with rosettes. The slim right hand touches a fold of the cloak.' 8

8: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 57).

On the other hand, the Pennells, writing in 1908, described it as 'the beautiful dry-point Annie Haden, in big crinoline and soup-plate hat'. 9

9: Pennell 1908 , vol. 1, p. 91.