The Major's Daughter (from "Once a Week")

James McNeill Whistler|Joseph Swain

June 21, 1862 · Wood engraving; proof · Drawings and Prints

In 1862 Whistler designed four wood engravings for the London periodical "Once a Week." Many of his Pre-Raphaelite friends were illustrating poems and short stories at this moment and the decade proved to be the start of a new flowering of British illustration. Founded in 1859, "Once a Week" supported the movement and was known as a "journal of the younger men." Whister's image responds to a story centered on Clara Vinrace, a young English woman who joins her parents in India and there falls in love with an older man. Here she sits wistfully on the deck of a steamship that will take her back to Britain.

Artist

James McNeill Whistler|Joseph Swain

Date

June 21, 1862

Medium

Wood engraving; proof

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917