Brushing the Hair |  Hunterian Art Gallery (46766) | |
| Number: | 94 | |
| Date: | 1863 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 231 x 154 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler.' at lower right | |
| Inscribed: | '1863.' at lower right | |
| Set/Publication: | 'Cancelled Plates', 1879 | |
| No. of States: | 1 | |
| Known impressions: | 17 | |
| Catalogues: | K.93; M.93 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (17) | ||
PUBLICATION
It was published in an album of Cancelled Plates ('Cancelled Set') by The Fine Art Society, London, 1879.
EXHIBITIONS
Brushing the Hair was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime, although Whistler did suggest exhibiting a ''rare proof of Jo & her sister doing her hair - "The Toilette"' at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1900: 10 This 'rare proof' - indeed, a unique proof - has not been located.
10: Whistler to E.G. Kennedy, [12/15 February 1900], GUW #09799.
The first known exhibition was at the Whistler Memorial show in London in 1905, when an impression was entitled 'Two Young Girls' and lent by Messrs Ernest Brown & Phillips. 11
11: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 386). See REFERENCES : EXHIBITIONS.
SALES & COLLECTORS
Surviving impressions of Brushing the Hair are all from the albums of cancelled impressions, and many are still in the original albums. For instance, the British Museum bought an album in 1887 (
), and Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), bought a set in 1893 (). Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) owned two impressions, probably acquired at the same time as the copper plates (, ).
), and Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), bought a set in 1893 (). Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) owned two impressions, probably acquired at the same time as the copper plates (, ).