UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

clothing, dress, fashion, hair, model, portrait, woman seated.

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

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.

Eloise ('Fumette') (fl. 1840-1858). Éloise - also called Héloïse - posed for Fumette standing 059, Fumette's Bent Head 058 and Venus 060, and for related drawings 4 including Seated seamstress with male companion m0288, reproduced below.

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

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

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.