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Annie, Seated

Impression: British Museum
British Museum
(1872-07-13-402)
Number: 32
Date: 1858/1859
Medium: etching and drypoint
Size: 130 x 97 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.-' at lower left
Inscribed: ' "Annie-" ' at lower centre (2-final)
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 3
Known impressions: 58
Catalogues: K.30; M.29; T.50; W.24
Impressions taken from this plate  (58)
The etching Annie, Seated probably dates from December 1858 or early January 1859.

Whistler spent Christmas in London with Annie's parents Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908) and Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910). Whistler returned to Paris on 12 January 1859 and in a letter to Deborah he wrote:
'I'm working hard and my stay in London with you and Seymour has done me an immense good in "my art" ... My etchings have been very much admired, and I wish Seymour would send me three fine proofs of each in black ink.' 1

1: Whistler to D. Haden, [12/30 January 1859], GUW #01913.

Whistler and Haden had been taught how to print etchings by Auguste Delâtre (1822-1907). The two brothers-in-law etched and printed portraits of family members. Delâtre appears to have taken at least some of the copper plates back to print in Paris, and on 29 June 1859 Haden asked Delâtre if Ignace-Henri-Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) could bring the plate of 'Annie assise' back to London. 2

According to Mansfield, Haden wrote on an impression in his collection, 'Annie Haden, 1859.' This may have been an impression now in the Freer Gallery of Art, but the inscription has been erased (Graphic with a link to impression #K0300203). 3

2: Haden to Delâtre, 29 June [1859], GUW #13140.

3: Mansfield 1909 (cat. no. 29).