Swan and Iris (Sketch after Cecil Lawson's "Swan and Iris")

James McNeill Whistler|Cecil Gordon Lawson

1883 · Etching and drypoint; sixth state of six (Glasgow); printed in black ink on medium weight ivory laid paper · Drawings and Prints

Whistler's etching is based on an unfinished painting by the British landscapist Lawson, a member of the Idyllists. The tranquil riverscape is composed of a flowering iris in the foreground, and a swan with outstretched wings moving across an expanse of water, perhaps the River Thames, towards a bank in the middle distance. The composition is framed by the wide span of an arched bridge. The print was commissioned as an illustration for a posthumous biography of Lawson written by Edmund Gosse and published in 1883, a copy of which is in the Museum's collection (17.3.2983). Lawson's wife, Constance Lawson, was the elder sister of Whistler's wife-to-be Beatrice Philip Godwin, whom he married in 1888.

Artist

James McNeill Whistler|Cecil Gordon Lawson

Date

1883

Medium

Etching and drypoint; sixth state of six (Glasgow); printed in black ink on medium weight ivory laid paper

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Bequest of Grace M. Pugh, 1985