Annie

James McNeill Whistler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Early in 1858 Whistler went to London from Paris to recuperate from a bad fall and stayed with his sister Deborah and her husband Seymour Haden. A gifted etcher, the latter encouraged the artist’s first serious efforts in the medium. This example centers on Whistler's niece and emphasizes an abstract pattern of darks and lights over portraiture, omitting the figure's legs. In November 1858, Whistler included the print in his first published set, "Douze eau-fortes d'apres Nature" ("Twelve Etchings from Nature"), known as the "French Set."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art