UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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The Fan

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1896.50)
Number: 375
Date: 1887/1888
Medium: etching
Size: 135 x 98 mm
Signed: butterfly to left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.345; M.343
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)

KEYWORD

clothing, dancing, fan, model, nude, woman standing.

TITLE

Variations on the title are as follows:


'The Fan' (1888, Whistler). 2
'The Fan' (1889, Whistler). 3
'Model Number Three' (1900, Caxton Club). 4
'Model with Fan' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 5
'The Fan (Model No. 3)' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 6


'The Fan' is the original and preferred title.

2: Whistler to T. McLean, 11 February 1888, GUW #13018.

3: List, 18 July 1889, GUW #13235.

4: Chicago 1900 (cat. no. E239).

5: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 343).

6: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 345).

DESCRIPTION

A young woman stands on her left leg, her right leg pointing forwards and to left. She wears a patterned long-sleeved gown, which falls open to show her nude body. She stands with her head bent to right, her left hand hidden by the robe, and her right arm holding up a fan. There are numerous outlines around her face and hand, as if she is in movement.

SITTER

Not identified. A similar semi-nude study of a model is reproduced below.
Comparative image
A masked woman [m1225], pastel, 1888/1889,
The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (46142).

DISCUSSION

Fans are prominent in Finette [61] and The Model Lying Down [110] and in lithographs such as The Fan [c016]. Whistler made some designs for fans or decorations for fans: Design for a fan [m0392] , r.: Designs for a fan; v.: Studies of a woman and a man [m0427], Sketch for a fan [m1422] , Dancing girl, on a fan [m1423] and Design for a fan [m1424].
Fans appear in many of Whistler's drawings, including nude studies and portrait studies, such as Draped figure seated, holding a fan [m0327], Mrs Leyland, standing holding a fan [m0432], r.: Model with a Fan; v.: Draped woman with a fan [m0447], Japanese lady decorating a fan [m0460], A lady with a fan [m0466], Female Figure with Fan [m0532], Girl with a fan [m0533], Female Figure with Fan [m0534], The Lady with the Fan [m0535], Woman with a Fan [m0536], Girl with a Fan [m0537] and Portrait with Fan (Design) [m0557].

Fans also figure prominently in later drawings, such as Blue and Rose: The Open Fan [m1233], Reclining figure with fan [m1303], Nude holding a fan [m1322], A woman holding a black fan [m1377], r.: A woman holding a pink fan; v.: Study of a woman holding a fan [m1461], A girl waving a fan [m1465], A draped model reclining with a fan [m1609] and A draped girl holding a fan in her left hand [m1623].
Embroidered robes appear also in several pastels, including The Embroidered Robe [m1224], A masked woman [m1225], Design for a Mosaic [m1226], The Japanese Dress [m1227]. Fans were an important element of fashion and composition in several oil portraits such as Lady with a Fan [y352] and Red and Black: The Fan [y388].

In this etching, the effect of movement, with the multiple outlines of the face and body, is reminiscent of nude and draped studies by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Rodin visited Whistler in his London studio about 1885 and in the 1890s their studios were close together in Paris, and they admired each other's work. 7

7: See e.g. J. Newton and M. MacDonald, 'Rodin. The Whistler monument', Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 92, 1978, pp. 221-31; Newton 1984 .