James Abbott McNeill Whistler
1834 Lowell, MA – 1903 London
Sketch after Cecil Lawson's 'Swan and Iris', 1882
Etching and drypoint in brown ink. Size of plate: 13.4 x 8.3 cm. Size of sheet: 31.5 x 23 cm.
Literature: Kennedy 241;
Mansfield 238;
Glasgow 247 VI/VI.
Aside from the edition of Cecil Lawson, a Memoir (London, 1883) by E. W. Gosse.
'It is evident that Mr. Whistler and the Japanese were engaging [Lawson's] thoughts about this time [...]. The same tendency is visible in an extremely fine composition which he never finished, a swan startled under Old Battersea Bridge [...]. Of this Mr. Whistler has very kindly made an etching for the present memoir.' (Gosse, p. 21-23).
The print is after an unfinished painting by Cecil Gordon Lawson (1851-1882), Whistler's brother-in-law. The copper plate is lost.
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