Japanese Woman Painting a Fan (recto)
Medium
black chalk and pastel
Dimensions
sheet: 27.9 × 17.6 cm · secondary support: 38.5 × 28.9 cm
Classification
Drawing
Department
Drawings
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Henry A. Everett for the Dorothy Burnham Everett Memorial Collection
Accession Number
1933.222.a
Tags
About this artwork
In 1872 Whistler was commissioned to contribute two designs to complete the decorative scheme of 35 monumental portrait mosaics installed in the south court of the South Kensington Museum in London (now the Victoria and Albert Museum). A celebration of the arts, the mosaics represented male artists throughout history; Whistler’s two designs attempted to correct the gender imbalance. His subjects were a woman at a spindle and a Japanese woman painting a fan. Here, a brush is poised in the figure’...