The Garden
Medium
Transfer lithograph in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 17 × 18.5 cm (6 3/4 × 7 5/16 in.); Sheet: 32 × 20.3 cm (12 5/8 × 8 in.)
Classification
transfer lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
73729
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
During the 1870s Whistler began entertaining at home, presiding over dinner parties and Sunday breakfasts that included other artists, dealers, and collectors among the guests. This lithograph records a similar but more informal gathering—a tea in the garden of the Whistlers’ house in Chelsea. The attendees have been identified as (from left to right) Marguerite Thomas, wife of the playwright Brandon Thomas, one of whose children was painted by Whistler; artists and Whistler followers Walter Sic...
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...