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Portrait of a man

Impression: Art Institute of Chicago
Art Institute of Chicago
(1924.637)
Number: 73
Date: 1860
Medium: drypoint
Size: 229 x 154 mm
Signed: 'Whistler.' at lower left
Inscribed: '1860.'
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 2
Known impressions: 30
Catalogues: K.63; M.63; T.72; W.58
Impressions taken from this plate  (30)

TECHNIQUE

This is a drypoint portrait. Whistler drew the figure with long, straight and zig-zag lines, very confidently, the shadows with varied cross-hatching, and the details of the face with lighter lines following the contours of the face.

PRINTING

There may have been a print-run of a dozen impressions before cancellation and a larger print-run, possibly as many as 20, from the cancelled set.
Whistler boasted to Samuel Putnam Avery (1822-1904) in 1873, 'I have a proof of "the Man" for you' (which may mean the Portrait of a Man under discussion). He added: 'I have three proofs of the Man - besides the one in the frame that I cannot yet find - They are the only ones the plate will give of fine quality in that state ...' 30

30: Whistler to S. P. Avery, [ca 7 July 1873], GUW #10628.

Avery certainly acquired a good, rich impression of the first state, printed in black ink (with considerable burr) on ivory Japan paper (). Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) acquired an even more richly inked impression, also on cream Asian laid paper ().
Other impressions are on a variety of western papers including off-white card-like wove (), and several laid papers - pale buff (), ivory watermarked with a posthorn and numbers ('1388' or '1788') (), and off-white 'antique' (pre-1800) watermarked paper (). Several are on Asian papers: ivory Japan (), cream Japan 'laid' (); off-white China 'laid' () and ivory India paper ().