Seymour Seated (A Little Boy)

 

James Abbott McNeill Whistler

  1834 - 1903 (biography)

1857 - 1858 

etching 

5 3/8 x 3 13/16" platemark 

unsigned, as usual 

proofs only 

"68" in ink in lower left corner, recto; dealers' inventory numbers in pencil on verso: R4440; a47205; AE18392 

Glasgow 9; Kennedy 29; M.6 

old, antique-white laid paper with a partial crown, cross and double C watermark (Briquet 9328) 

iii/iii 

artist 

18392 

$3,500.00 

This is a portrait of Seymour Haden's eldest son, 7 year old Seymour, who was Whistler's nephew. He is depicted wearing a Scottish kilt and argyle socks. Whistler was staying at Haden's 62 Sloane Street home, recuperating from a fall in early 1858 and got to know his nephew, creating this etching directly from life. He did 6 portraits while there, including 2 of Seymour. This impression is beautifully printed with plate tone and the sheen that Whistler achieved by "calendaring" (heating the plate before printing) the antique Western papers that he sought out in old ledgers, books, etc. The "68" in the lower corner might indicate that this sheet was from a ledger. The Glasgow raisonné notes 23 known impressions from the plate.