Reading a Book
1873/74
Medium
Drypoint, with drypoint cancellation, in black ink on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 12.6 × 7.6 cm (5 × 3 in.); Sheet, sight, bound: 38 × 23.9 cm (15 × 9 7/16 in.)
Classification
drypoint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
190698
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s *Reading a Book* (1873/74) captures an intimate moment of quiet contemplation, rendered in drypoint—a technique where the artist scratches directly into copper plate with a sharp tool, raising a soft burr that produces rich, velvety lines. Printed in black ink on ivory laid paper, this small plate (just 12.6 × 7.6 cm) Whistler’s mastery of subtle tone and texture during his experimental printmaking phase in the 1870s. The deliberate "drypoint cancellation"—scratching the plate to prevent further printings—ensures its rarity, housed today in the Art Institute of Chicago...
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...