Afternoon Tea
Medium
Transfer lithograph in black on tan laid Japanese vellum
Dimensions
Image: 18.5 × 15.7 cm (7 5/16 × 6 3/16 in.); Sheet: 40 × 24.3 cm (15 3/4 × 9 5/8 in.)
Classification
transfer lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
139560
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s *Afternoon Tea* (7) captures an intimate moment of Victorian domesticity through the delicate medium of transfer lithography. Printed in black ink on tan laid Japanese vellum—a fine, textured paper prized for its absorbency and subtle sheen—this work exemplifies Whistler’s mastery of printmaking in his later career. The modest image size (18.5 × 15.7 cm) invites close viewing, revealing his signature focus on harmony, tone, and suggestion over detail, hallmarks of the Aesthetic movement he championed. Whistler, an American expatriate in London, revolutionized printmak...
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...