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The Muff

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1892.4)
Number: 131
Date: 1874
Medium: drypoint
Size: 126 x 75 mm
Signed: butterfly at right (3-final)
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 4
Known impressions: 11
Catalogues: K.113; M.112; W.126
Impressions taken from this plate  (11)

KEYWORD

clothing, dress, fur, fashion, hat, muff, portrait, woman seated.

TITLE

The title has been consistent, as in the following examples:


'THE MUFF' (1880, Dowdeswell). 2
'Muff' (1877, Whistler). 3
'The Muff' (1885/1887, Whistler). 4
'The Muff' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 5

2: Dowdeswell to C. A. Howell, GUW #02856.

3: To C. A. Howell, 12 October-5 November [1877], GUW #12735.

4: Written on Graphic with a link to impression #K1130303.

5: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 126).

DESCRIPTION

A three-quarter length portrait of a lady seated facing to the right, wearing a hat trimmed with feathers and a dark jacket edged with fur. She holds in her lap a muff upon which rests her right hand. There is shading in the background. The figure is lit from the right.

SITTER

The sitter has not been identified.

DISCUSSION

This is one of several portraits of fashionably dressed young women, including The Velvet Dress (Mrs Leyland) [120], The Little Velvet Dress [119], Tatting [130], Maud, Standing [169] and Fanny Leyland [135].
Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) responded to the portrait's charm:
'A young woman seated, having come to pay a morning call, and meaning to be pleasant ... A scarce little dry-point, of elegant and refined triviality - if, indeed, it is to be trivial to be entirely of our day.' 6

6: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 126).