The Little Velvet Dress |  National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (1943.3.8465) | |
| Number: | 119 | |
| Date: | 1873 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 166 x 122 mm | |
| Signed: | butterfly at right | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 3 | |
| Known impressions: | 27 | |
| Catalogues: | K.106; M.106; W.92 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (27) | ||
KEYWORD
clothing, dress, fashion, full-length, portrait, woman standing.
TITLE
The title appears to have remained consistent, as in these examples:
'The little Velvet dress' (1873, Whistler). 2
'The Little Velvet Dress' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3
'The little Velvet dress' (1873, Whistler). 2
'The Little Velvet Dress' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 3
2: Written on 
.
3: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 92).
DESCRIPTION
The standing full-length figure of a woman, facing to right, with her right hand held well in front of her. She has blonde hair pulled up tightly and gathered into a bun on top of her head. She wears a dark dress, with material, possibly a bow, gathered up behind her hips. The dress has a fitted bodice, and a ruffle about the neck and down the front. There is a curtain and dado in the background, and shadows fall on the wall behind her.
SITTER
Alice Fay Greaves (b. 1852). She posed in a similar dress for a crayon and chalk drawing, A lady standing: Tinnie Greaves [m0420]. According to Walter Greaves (1846-1930), Whistler 'was continually making sketches of my sister 'Tinnie', ... he used to say that she had such a wonderfully shaped head.' 4
4: Exh. cat., London, Goupil, 1922, pp. 17-18 (cat. no. 10).
The same dress, partly concealed by a fur coat, may appear in another drawing, The Ermine Coat [m0419]. Both drawings have been dated some time between 1871 and 1873. 5
5: Freer Gallery of Art, Carnegie Museum of Art.