UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Etchings         Institutions search term: british museum

Fanny Leyland

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1927.5946)
Number: 135
Date: 1874
Medium: drypoint
Size: 197 x 134 mm
Signed: butterfly at left (2-final)
Inscribed: 'Fanny Leyland' at upper left
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 6
Known impressions: 12
Catalogues: K.108; M.107; T.77; W.94
Impressions taken from this plate  (12)

KEYWORD

child, dress, girl, girl seated, portrait.

TITLE


There are minor variations on the title, as follows:


'Fanny Leyland' (1874, Whistler). 2
'Portrait of Miss Fanny' (1874, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890)). 3
'Miss Fanny Leyland' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 4
'Fannie' (1877, Whistler). 5
'Fannie Leyland with Chair' (1877, Whistler). 6
'Portrait of Fanny Leyland' (1893, World's Columbian Exposition). 7
'Fanny Leyland' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 8
'Fanny Leyland ' (1887/1888, Whistler). 9


It is clear that 'Fanny Leyland' was Whistler's original title, and is indeed the girl's name, and so this is the generally accepted title.

2: Written on the copper plate.

3: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 480).

4: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 77).

5: 22 October [1877], GUW #12737.

6: [16/21 November 1877], GUW #12740.

7: Chicago 1893 (cat. no. 2252).

8: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 94).

9: List, [1887/1888], GUW #13233.

DESCRIPTION

A girl, with long wavy hair tied up in ribbons, sits facing to the left, her hands resting in her lap. She wears a dress with a close-fitting top, high frilled collar, long puffed sleeves with a frill at the wrists, a long skirt, with four or five layers of flounces gathered into a bow or bunch at the back. Her feet are barely visible. She sits on a cushion on a wooden chair that has a straight back, narrow legs, and arms supported on three slender struts.

SITTER

Fanny Leyland (1857-1880). This is one of several drypoint portraits of the children of Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) and Frances Leyland (1834-1910), which include Sketches of Heads [138], Elinor Leyland [137] and Florence Leyland [136].