La Belle Dame Paresseuse

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• Description

  Drawing of a seated woman in a dress.

• Signatures

  Signed with the Butterfly on the drawing and with the Butterfly in pencil on the print.

• Edition/State

  One impression.

• Label

  Beatrix Whistler, the artist's wife is shown here, seated at the end of a sofa at 110 rue du Bac. Whistler loved this lithograph. In a September 1894 letter, he challenged his London printer to take a "fine proof" of La Belle Dame Paresseuse "and put it beside any one of the old lithographs out of your portfolio-and then see how this 'belle dame' looks fair and silvery, and beautiful in the quality of blacks! Indeed far and away more like the charcoal drawing itself of the painter-than anything that had ever been printed!-it is also quite velvety-like . . . the burr in a drypoint!"

  Quotation from Whistler to Thomas Way, September 14, 1894.

• Provenance

  From at least 1906 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from the artist by at least 1906 [1]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [2]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Whistler List, Lithographs, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Regarding the purchase details for this object, a note in the Accession File, Collections Management office, states only: "From Mr. Whistler." Also, according to Curatorial Remark 2, G.D.G., 1921, in the object record: "No record existing of the time of purchase, the print was given a registration number for 1906, the year of the printed Inventory."

  [2] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Whistler in Paris: Lithographs from the Belle Epoque, 1891-1896 (February 21 to August 15, 2004)

  Centennial Exhibition, East Corridor (February 25, 1956 to July 10, 1958)

• Previous custodian or owner

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Print

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1890s

• Name

  Whistler, James McNeill, Freer, Charles Lang

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, American Art, Portraits, Woman

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Prints