Lot n° 395
Estimation :
1500 - 1800
EUR
Result with fees
Result
: 1 920EUR
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) (after) - Lot 395
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) (after)
Arrangement in Brown and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder. 1880. Black Manner by Richard Josey. 290 x 525. Fine applied china print, slightly oxidized, irregularly trimmed on the plate, annotated in pencil by Whistler under the subject on the left: "Trial proof / 1st proof with corrections" and signed with her name followed by the butterfly, then titled in the center (by another hand). A few tiny tears forming white dots in the subject. Light and rare light freckles. Small stains and small accidents at the edges of the leaf, including some short tears in the head. Narrow margins.
This black manner was engraved by Richard Josey (1840 or 1841-1906) after Whistler's painting of the same subject (referenced in the painted work as no. 203), dated 1878 and now in the Frick Collection, New York. Whistler's hand annotations on our proof prove that he closely supervised the making of the print. The dealer and publisher was Henry Graves (1806-1892), who specialized in interpretive engravings after masters (Turner, Wilkie, Lawrence, Constable, Landseer...) and contemporary artists.
The engraving was made thanks to the intercession of Charles Augustus Howell, a Portuguese entrepreneur born in 1849 who lived in Selsey Bill, Sussex, and whose model for the painting, Rosa Corder, was the mistress. Howell, after serving as secretary to Ruskin and Rossetti, later became Whistler's unofficial secretary. He assisted the artist in the sale of his paintings and their distribution through printmaking - not without enriching himself. In May 1879 Whistler handed over his copyright to Howell and Howell arranged for N° 203 to be engraved in mezzotint and published through Graves in 1880 (the mezzotint was exh. London, RA, 1880). At some time Graves acquired the copyright from Howell". (Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret MacDonald, Robin Spencer, et al, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, The Paul Mellon Centre for
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