Fumette

James McNeill Whistler

1858 · Etching on tan chine on off-white wove paper (chine collé); fifth state of five (Glasgow) · Drawings and Prints

Whistler's mistress Heloise was nicknamed Fumette for her quick temper. Thought to be a gypsy, she worked as a milliner in the Latin Quarter of Paris and lived with the artist for two years. Her bohemian character is suggested here by hair worn loose, in defiance of convention, and crouching pose. Sympathetic to realist and naturalist ideas current in France, the artist avoided idealization or suggestions of universal meaning. Seymour Haden later recorded that Whistler etched the image before leaving for a tour of the Rhineland in mid-August 1868. After his October return, impressions were pulled for publication a month later in "Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" ("Twelve Etchings from Nature," known as the "French Set"). Evidently pleased with the print, the artist sent an impression to the Paris Salon of 1859. This impression belonged to Thomas Winans, a Baltimore friend who financed the artist's move to Paris in 1855; Winans kept the print in an album that descendants gave to the Museum.

Artist

James McNeill Whistler

Date

1858

Medium

Etching on tan chine on off-white wove paper (chine collé); fifth state of five (Glasgow)

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Margaret C. Buell, Helen L. King, and Sybil A. Walk, 1970