Jo's Bent Head |  Freer Gallery of Art (1898.409) | |
| Number: | 88 | |
| Date: | 1861 | |
| Medium: | drypoint | |
| Size: | 226 x 152 mm | |
| Signed: | no | |
| Inscribed: | no | |
| Set/Publication: | no | |
| No. of States: | 3 | |
| Known impressions: | 25 | |
| Catalogues: | K.78; M.78 | |
| Impressions taken from this plate (25) | ||
PUBLICATION
Jo's Bent Head was not published.
EXHIBITIONS
No exhibitions are recorded in Whistler's lifetime, though an impression may have been on view with H. Wunderlich & Co. in 1898, when one was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) (). Two prints were shown at the Grolier Club in New York in 1904, described in the catalogue as 'Impression clean wiped' and 'Another impression richly printed. A few additional lines below.' Freer lent an impression for this show, likely the latter of the two judging by the description of additional lines (or scratches). 7 Howard Mansfield (1849-1938) () and W. H. Bustin (fl. 1958wn) lent impressions to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in Boston in the same year. 8 Finally, in 1905 Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) lent one to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London (). 9
7: New York 1904a (cat. no. 66a, b).
8: Boston 1904 (cat. no. 58).
9: London Mem. 1905 (cat. no. 78).
SALES & COLLECTORS
There are no references to sales of this drypoint. However it is possible that sales might have been confused with those of Jo 087.
Among early collectors, Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935) owned a first state, which must have been returned to Whistler, because it was annotated 'Jo.' and signed with a butterfly about 1887 ().
Impressions of all three states were owned by Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938), who may have eventually acquired and printed the copper plate (, ). One of these was also owned by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) and was later bequeathed by Margaret Selkirk Watson Parker (1867-1936) to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (). Mrs Parker also acquired another impression originally from the important collection of Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (ca 1829 - d.1891) (). Menpes also gave an impression to the British Museum in 1920 ().
Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910) owned an impression of the third state printed in brown ink on ivory laid paper with a fleur-de-lys watermark, which was sold through Wunderlich & Co., to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) on 9 November 1898 ().
Later collectors include Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971), who acquired another third state, this being printed in dark brown ink, with soft burr (). Another impression, with subtle use of plate tone, came comparatively recently (1962) to the University of Glasgow ().