UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Tillie: A Model

Impression: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
(1949.5.540)
Number: 113
Date: 1873
Medium: drypoint
Size: 235 x 160 mm
Signed: butterfly at left
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 5
Known impressions: 6
Catalogues: K.117; M.116; W.102
Impressions taken from this plate  (6)

TECHNIQUE

Comparative image
Study for 'Tillie: A Model' [m0369], chalk, 1870/1873,
The Hunterian, University of Glasgow (46030).
Tillie [m0367], Study of a Nude [m0368], Study for 'Tillie: A Model' [m0369] (reproduced above) and Tillie: Study in Pink and Mauve [m0370] are possibly studies for the drypoint or the oils, The White Symphony: Three Girls [y087] and The Three Girls [y088]. One impression of the drypoint (Graphic with a link to impression #K1170402) was worked over extensively in wash by the artist, showing that in drypoint, as in oil and pastel, Whistler went to great pains to get the figure just as he wanted it.

PRINTING

It is fairly rare. Whistler only printed one or two impressions of each state. The first state was printed in black ink on 'antique' (pre-1800) laid paper, with a faint countermark, possibly 'D' (Graphic with a link to impression #K1170102), and the second on similar paper (. Graphic with a link to impression #K1170101). The third state is on ivory laid paper with a posthorn watermark (Graphic with a link to impression #K1170202). The fourth was printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper (Graphic with a link to impression #K1170302). The drypoint was still printing with patches of strong burr at this stage.

The sole known impression of the final state was printed in warm black ink, and was worked over extensively in wash. It is on a sheet removed from a book, watermarked 'B/TH' in a decorative circle, with old pen inscriptions on the verso (Graphic with a link to impression #K1170402). The sole known cancelled impression - which is probably of the same fifth state - was also printed in black, but this time on cream wove paper, possibly with the intention of publishing it with a set of cancelled etchings in 1879, but it was not included in the album as published (Graphic with a link to impression #K1170501).