The Toilet
Medium
Lithotint with scraping and incising, on a prepared half-tint ground, in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 26 × 16.4 cm (10 1/4 × 6 1/2 in.); Sheet: 27.9 × 17.7 cm (11 × 7 in.)
Classification
lithotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
139396
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
From the early 1870s until the late 1880s, Maud Franklin posed formally and informally for many of Whistler’s paintings, drawings, and prints. Initially his professional model, she soon became Whistler’s mistress, but their relationship ended with his marriage to Beatrice Godwin in 1888. Franklin also modeled for Mortimer Menpes and William Stott of Oldham.
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...