By Candlelight

Julian Alden Weir

ca. 1885–93 · Drypoint; only state · Drawings and Prints

Gentle features, softly drawn, mark the serious countenance. Dense repetitions of fine lines trace the wide eyes and sensual lips of the artist's wife, Anna (who appears in a drawing exhibited nearby.) She sits opposite her husband at a table, glancing down and slightly away, her hands clasped lightly in a gesture resembling prayer. Behind her high-backed chair, an antique cabinet marked by turnings and carved panels-a sign of the woman's Yankee pedigree, and of her husband's refined taste-emerges from the darkness.

Artist

Julian Alden Weir

Date

ca. 1885–93

Medium

Drypoint; only state

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Rogers Fund, 1918