UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Miss Alexander

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1899.55)
Number: 117
Date: 1873
Medium: drypoint
Size: 225 x 148 mm
Signed: no
Inscribed: no
Set/Publication: no
No. of States: 1
Known impressions: 2
Catalogues: K.139; M.137
Impressions taken from this plate  (2)

TECHNIQUE

The only known impression shows one faint drypoint figure underneath the delicate drypoint portrait, but is so overlaid with wash amendments that it is very difficult to tell what it originally looked like (). The impression is virtually a monochrome watercolour.

PRINTING

The sole impression was printed in black ink on cream laid paper with the watermark of a beehive over 'DEDB' (). It was worked over extensively in grey and black with a quill pen, and possibly with a brush for broader washes. The background at left was shaded in wash, and the girl's hair and clothes darkened; delicate strokes model her face, indicating a light source from a window at right. Some of the washes, under the chair, do not appear to have any purpose except to conceal the earlier drypoint or to test the brush.