Accession Number
1954/1.318

Title
Annie, One of the 'Twelve Etchings from Nature,' or the 'French Set'

Artist(s)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Artist Nationality
American (North American)

Object Creation Date
1858

Medium & Support
etching, printed in black ink on Japan paper, laid down on white wove plate paper

Dimensions
12 13/16 in. x 9 11/16 in. ( 32.6 cm x 24.6 cm )

Credit Line
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker

Label copy
Annie, from the French Set, or Twelve Etchings from Nature
1858
Etching on Japan paper
Fourth state of five (Kennedy 10)
Bequest of Margaret Watson Parker, 1954/1.318
Early 1858 found Whistler in London, recuperating from an illness under the care of his sister’s family. During this time, he executed portraits of his young niece and nephew, Annie and Arthur Haden. Here Whistler portrays Annie against a largely undescribed background, using a flurry of loosely drawn lines to the left of the figure to evoke shadow and space. The legs were added by Seymour Haden, who thought the figure of his daughter looked unfinished. After Whistler and Haden’s relationship ended, Whistler took exception to his mentor’s modifications and wrote on an impression taken after he had intervened, “Legs not by me, but a fatuous addition by a general practitioner.”

Subject matter
Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937) was the oldest of Seymour Haden's four children and was a frequent model for Whistler prior to his rupture with her father in 1867.

Physical Description
A girl stands facing to the left, her face turned slightly towards the viewer. She is shown standing in a dark dress with a high collar and long hair parted in the middle. Her dress comes to just below the knee and although she holds the hem of her skirt in her left hand, there is only slight indication of the girl's left leg. The result is a vignetted view; the artist's signature and the inscription bearing the information about the printer (Auguste Delatre) form the bottom of an implied oval frame.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Western

Rights
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Keywords
girls
standing