Etchings Institutions search term: british museum
Jo's Bent Head | ||
Number: | 88 | |
Date: | 1861 | |
Medium: | drypoint | |
Size: | 226 x 152 mm | |
Signed: | no | |
Inscribed: | no | |
Set/Publication: | no | |
No. of States: | 3 | |
Known impressions: | 25 | |
Catalogues: | K.78; M.78 | |
Impressions taken from this plate (25) |
TECHNIQUE
'In the drypoint Jo's Bent Head... Whistler carried the tendency toward radical elimination of detail found in the portrait drypoints of 1859-60 to extremes. While drawing Jo's head in profile he scarcely indicated the contour of her seated form, leaving a great deal to the viewer's imagination. The plate was printed leaving a film of surface tone to suggest atmosphere.' 6
6: Lochnan 1984 , pp. 135-136.
PRINTING
Impressions of the third state are on a variety of laid papers, including ivory (
), cream with 'P' countermark (
), 'antique' (pre-1800) with the Strasbourg Lily/VR watermark (
), off-white 'antique' (
) and cream with a hunting horn watermark (
). Others are in dark brown ink, for instance, one on dark cream paper with an Arms of Amsterdam watermark (
), and on cream with an 'IV' countermark (
,
).








Some thirty impressions are recorded. This is a surprising number and it may be that at least some impressions of the final state, such as the one reproduced above, were printed by another printer. Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) is said to have printed one impression (
), and he gave one to the British Museum in 1920 (
).

