Stéphane Mallarmé
1892, published 1893
Medium
Transfer lithograph in gray-black on grayish ivory wove paper, laid down on off-white plate paper (chine collé)
Dimensions
Image: 9.7 × 7 cm (3 7/8 × 2 13/16 in.); Primary support: 11.9 × 7.9 cm (4 11/16 × 3 1/8 in.); Secondary support: 31.8 × 24.7 cm (12 9/16 × 9 3/4 in.)
Classification
transfer lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
73797
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Introduced by Claude Monet, the poet Mallarmé and Whistler became friends in 1887 and remained close until Mallarmé’s death in 1898. Each man played a role in the other’s publishing projects; Mallarmé translated the “Ten O’Clock” lecture into French, and Whistler produced this lithographic portrait for Mallarmé’s 1893 book of poems, Vers et prose.
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...