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JAMES A. M.WHISTLER
Sketch after Cecil Lawson’s “Swan and Iris.”
Etching and drypoint printed in black on antique, cream laid paper, 1882. 134x82 mm;
5
1
/
4
x3
1
/
4
inches, wide margins. MacDonald’s sixth state (of 6), with the horizontal drypoint
lines extending on the bevel at the plate edge upper left. Partial Strasburg Lily watermark.
A very good impression.
The subject was inspired by an unfinished painting by the artist Cecil Lawson (1851-
1882), whose widow Constance Lawson was the elder sister of Whistler’s wife-to-be,
Beatrice. According to MacDonald, this was the only illustration etching Whistler made
after the three he produced for the Junior Etching Club in 1861. It was used in Gosse’s
Cecil Lawson:A Memoir
published by the Fine Art Society, London, in 1883. Kennedy 241;
Glasgow 247.
[1,500/2,500]