Studio: international art (6.1896)

Mr. Whistler s Lithographs

reversed. After these three years a long break so full of colour and life, and so marvellously firm,
took place in Mr. Whistler's lithographic work, as indeed may be said of every drawing recently
whilst he was making his wonderful series of Venice exhibited. A little later came the drawings of the
etchings and pastels ; for, like most artists who Hotel Colbert, with the capital group of cock and
work in a variety of mediums, each will monopolise hens done in the same manner as the preceding ;
his thought for a long period. But in his case, but when we look at the next series, the drawings
when next he turned to lithography, he entered on of Vitre, we see a distinct development. In The
a completely new phase of the art, and has not Canal, Mr. Whistler uses the stump for the first
again used the lithotint process at all. It is to be time, and produces by its means the exquisite
hoped, however, that in the future he will do so, and liquidity of the water and the delicate cloudy sky.
will bring the fruits of his later studies to bear on it. " Stumping," as here used, and also in a great
About 1885-6, when he began working afresh, the number of the following drawings, must not be
transfer papers and processes had been greatly confounded with a process of secondary printing
developed and improved,
and being desirous of work-
ing out of doors, the natu-
rally great facilities of this
method tempted him to use
it in place of the stone. It
is, perhaps, as well that it
was so, as it would have
been quite impossible to
have had a stone out in the
street to draw many of the
delightful shops and groups
of old buildings which were
done about this time, and.
indeed, extend right up to
the present. The earliest
were the Entrance Gate, St.
Bartholomew's,and. the Little
Court, Cloth/air; soon after
came the Ragshops, The
Wheelwright, and Maun-
ders1 Fish Shop ; whilst, at

the same period, too, the de- ' -]'■■■ f$% ' '" I





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lightful semi-classic studies
of lightly draped girls, re-
calling to one's mind the
loveliest Tanagra figures,
The Dancing Girl and
Model Draping, and The
Little Nude Model Reading,
here illustrated, which is
one of the finest studies of
the nude ever made in black
and white. Whilst, in what
may be classed as portrai-
ture, the two very popular
drawings of The Winged
Hat and the Gants de
Suede, the latter issued as a
supplement to The Studio

of April 1894 — drawings "the canal" by j. mcneil whistler

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