Fumette |  Art Institute of Chicago (1934.542) | |
| Number: | 12 | |
| Date: | 1858 | |
| Medium: | etching | |
| Size: | 163 x 109 mm | |
| Signed: | 'Whistler' at lower right (2-final) | |
| Inscribed: | 'Imp. Delatre. Rue St. Jacques, 171' at lower left (5) | |
| Set/Publication: | 'French Set', 1858 | |
| No. of States: | 5 | |
| Known impressions: | 75 | |
| Catalogues: | K.13; M.15; T.12; W.18 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (75) | ||
KEYWORD
clothing, dress, fashion, hair, model, portrait, woman seated.
TITLE
This was called 'Fumette' by Whistler and all later cataloguers, for example:
'Fumette' (1858, Whistler). 1
' "Fumette" ' (1870s, Whistler). 2
'Fumette' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 3
'Fumette' (1858, Whistler). 1
' "Fumette" ' (1870s, Whistler). 2
'Fumette' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 3
DESCRIPTION
A young woman, with centrally-parted, curly shoulder-length hair, sits on a low stool or step facing the viewer. Her hands are clasped over her knees. She wears a dark apron over a full skirt, a long pointed collar with lace edge over a fitted bodice; the sleeves are gathered in tucks at the top and full below.
SITTER
Eloise ('Fumette') (fl. 1840-1858). Éloise - also called Héloïse - posed for Fumette standing [59], Fumette's Bent Head [58] and Venus [60], and for related drawings 4 including Seated seamstress with male companion [m0288], reproduced below.
4: r.: Fumette; v.: Dancing clowns [m0289], probably r.: A girl reclining on a couch, reading; v.: Female head [m0290].
Seated seamstress with male companion [m0288], pencil,
Freer Gallery of Art.
Whistler's first partner, Héloïse was a grisette, a vivid and fiery character. A grisette, as described in Henri Murger's Scènes de la vie de Bohème (1848/1851) and Alfred de Musset's poem Mimi Pinson (1845), was a working girl, a young seamstress or milliner, fun-loving and faithful as a lover.
It would seem they did not part amicably. Some time after they parted, Whistler wrote to Ignace-Henri-Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) regarding a meeting that had taken place between Fantin, Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), and Fumette:
'Je connais déja la rencontre de vous deux avec Heloise et son anecdote! de quoi veut elle se venger!
' (I already know about the meeting between you two and Héloïse and her anecdote! She wants her revenge!' 5
5: [May 1864], GUW #08039.
DISCUSSION
Wedmore responded to Fumette's appearance in the etching, describing her as having 'lively eyes and thick hair loose to the shoulders, crouch[ing] with head bent forward and knees upraised.' 6 The pose was distinctly informal and would have been regarded as unladylike. However, although Fumette's pose and hair suggest a 'wild, gypsy-like street girl', Whistler's realistic depiction of her dress, with its full sleeves gathered in narrow tucks and the lace collar, modifies this, suggesting her skill at sewing. 7
6: Wedmore 1886 A, op. cit.
7: MacDonald 2003, p. 55, fig. 51.
Mansfield wrote 'It is said that the model for "Fumette" was a little milliner of the Latin Quarter, named Eloise'. 8 Mansfield, incidentally, described her as 'wearing a mantilla with lace collar'. A lace collar she certainly has, but what he meant by a mantilla is not clear.
8: Mansfield 1909, op. cit.