La Vieille aux Loques (The Old Woman with Rags) from The French Set (K 21 III)

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La Vieille aux Loques (The Old Woman with Rags) from The French Set (K 21 III)

Artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler (American, 1834-1903)

Date1858

DimensionsSheet: 10 3/4 × 8 1/16 in. (27.3 × 20.5 cm)
Plate: 8 1/4 × 5 13/16 in. (21 × 14.8 cm)

Mediumetching

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of David Keppel in memory of his faher, Frederick Keppel

Object number

1914.123

Not on View

Label TextWhistler chose the printer Auguste Delatre, to proof (print) his plates. Delatre printed for Legros and Bracquemond (both of whose work is in this exhibition), and it was probably in his shop that Whistler saw the work of Jean-François Millet. Whistler’s La Vieille aux locques is compositionally very close to Millet’s La Cardeuse (displayed next to this print). Both prints recall the stillness of a Dutch interior of the 19th century. Whistler’s The Rag Gatherers is a similar composition. This print shows a condition known as foul biting, which appears along with Whistler’s fingerprints in the margins. Foul biting occurred when the acid in which the plate is bathed to deepen the artist’s etched lines penetrated the etching ground. This is commonly felt to be a defect showing improper handling of the plate during processing. However, Whistler does not appear to have minded these “accidents of the bath,” which were not uncommon in the etchings of Rembrandt.Exhibition HistoryTMA Inner Space: June 20, 2008 through Oct.10, 2008. TMA, Whistler: Influences, Friends, and the Not-So-Friendly, Feb. 26 - May 30, 2010.