UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Girl Lying Down

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1893.82)
Number: 128
Date: 1875/1876
Medium: drypoint
Size: 132 x 209 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 18
Catalogues: K.124; M.121
Impressions taken from this plate  (18)

KEYWORD

girl reclining, portrait, couch, sleep.

TITLE

Whistler's original title is not known. There are only a few variations on the title, as follows:


Possibly 'The Siesta' (1877, Whistler). 1
'Girl Lying Down' (1909, Howard Mansfield (1849-1938)). 2
'A Child on a Couch, No. 1' (1910, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)). 3

It is not certain that 'The Siesta' is this etching or a similar subject (Sleeping Girl [127]) or another etching altogether. Mansfield's title 'Girl Lying Down' has been preferred, as simple and descriptive.

1: Whistler to C. A. Howell, 12 October-5 November [1877], GUW #12735.

2: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 121).

3: Kennedy 1910 (cat. no. 124).

DESCRIPTION

A girl wearing a long dress lies on a sofa with her head on a cushion at left, and her figure extended to the right, her right arm hanging over the side of the sofa. There is a large curve, possibly the back of the sofa, in the background, at left. Near the right edge of the plate are sketches of two heads, one that of a girl wearing a round hat.

SITTER

Not identified. The same model appears in Sleeping Girl [127].