Sketch after Cecil Lawson's "Swan and Iris"
Medium
Etching and drypoint with foul biting in black ink on cream Japanese paper
Dimensions
Plate: 13.5 × 8.4 cm (5 3/8 × 3 5/16 in.); Sheet: 21.2 × 14.6 cm (8 3/8 × 5 3/4 in.)
Classification
etching
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
73485
Art Historical Context
In the Prints and Drawings department of the Art Institute of Chicago, James McNeill Whistler's *Sketch after Cecil Lawson's "Swan and Iris"* (1882) captures the artist's fascination with fellow British painter Cecil Lawson's poetic landscape. Whistler, a leading figure in the Aesthetic movement and champion of "art for art's sake," created this intimate etching as a homage or study, translating Lawson's delicate imagery of a swan amid irises into his own precise, evocative line work. At just 13.5 × 8.4 cm on the plate, it exemplifies Whistler's mastery of small-scale printmaking during a prol...
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...