A Portrait: Mildred Howells
1894/96
Medium
Transfer lithograph in black with scraping, on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 22.6 × 19.7 cm (8 15/16 × 7 13/16 in.); Sheet: 31.9 × 20.2 cm (12 9/16 × 8 in.)
Classification
transfer lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
73817
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler created this intimate of Mildred Howells between 1894 and 1896, capturing the young woman with his characteristic sensitivity to line and tone. A leading figure of the Aesthetic movement, Whistler often explored portraiture as a means of suggesting personality through subtle arrangement rather than overt detail. Here, the subject appears in a quiet, contemplative pose rendered with remarkable economy. The work is a transfer lithograph, a medium Whistler embraced in the 1890s for its ability to convey both soft atmospheric effects and precise, scraped highlights. By draw...
About the Artist
James McNeill Whistler · 1834–1903
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was an American-born painter and printmaker who became a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement and pioneer of Tonalism and Japonisme. He revolutionized art by championing "art for art's sake" and treating paintings as visual equivalents of musical compositions, titling works as "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes" to emphasize formal qualities o...