UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Ross Winans

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.322)
Number: 72
Date: 1860
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 253 x 203 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' at upper right (1-final); 'Whistler' in upper right corner (1); corner signature erased (2)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 8
Catalogues: K.88; M.88; T.67; W.76
Impressions taken from this plate  (8)

KEYWORD

accordion, man seated, music, musician, portrait.

TITLE

The title has consistently been the sitter's name, with few variations, for example:


'Ross Winans' (1870s, Whistler). 1
'Ross Winans' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 2
'Ross Winans playing the accordion' (1876, Sotheby's) 3


The title 'Ross Winans' was that used by Whistler and is generally accepted.

1: Written on Graphic with a link to impression #K0880201.

2: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 67).

3: Sotheby's, 1 May 1876 (lot 929).

DESCRIPTION

A three-quarter length portrait of a young man with short curly hair and with a moustache, who sits facing three-quarters right, playing an accordion. On a table at the right are a violin and bow. He is lit from the left and casts a shadow on the wall behind, to right; there is shading around the lower part of the figure.

SITTER

Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912). One impression was inscribed by Whistler 'Ross Winans' below the platemark and 'London' on the image (Graphic with a link to impression #K0880201). Whistler had done a vigorous, slightly caricatured study of Winans in America, Ross Winans playing the violin [m0194] (Metropolitan Museum of Art).

DISCUSSION

Whistler etched several portraits of musicians, including J. Becquet, Sculptor [62], The Guitar Player (M.W. Ridley) [124] and The Piano [144].