Existing comment:
I Spend the Whole Day Drawing from Models!
-- Whistler, 1867
Whistler's self-imposed discipline of drawing studio models resulted in new confidence and sophistication in rendering the female figure. He sketched models in form-revealing drapery that suggests a classical inspiration, even though their poses are more characteristic of the figures in Japanese prints. Often executed in pastel, these drawings have a freedom and spontaneity that suggest pleasure, rather than the toil of a painstaking drawing lesson.
All works are by James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), are the gift of Charles Lang Freer, and are in the collection of the Freer Gallery of Art. |