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Date 1894
Materials Lithograph - black ink on laid paper
Dimensions 29.2 cm x 19.9 cm
Marks Signed in stone with a butterfly at the
upper left; watermark: a crown; square collector’s stamp
of Miss Rosalind Birnie Philip on verso
Further information GLAHA 49081.
Harriet Stratis and Martha Tedeschi (eds), The Lithographs of
James McNeill Whistler, Volume 1: A Catalogue Raisonne, Chicago,
Art Institute of Chicago, 1998 (104).
Note The Duet depicts Whistler’s wife Beatrix and her sister Ethel Birnie Philip playing the piano in the Whistler Paris home. It is a night time scene. Whistler was interested in contrasting areas of light and shade, and here he focused on the shadows created by the light of a small lamp on the piano. The backs of the women are in shadow, but their faces and hands, lit by the lamp, appear to glow. We can just make out details of the room with its chair, picture frames on the piano and painting on the wall. All is suggested with limited detail. It is the two women who are the central focus of the picture, and Whistler used the darkness of their dresses to draw our eye immediately to them. Their faces are portrayed with great subtlety and delicacy. The picture is linked to Symbolist images of women and music.
Related works GLAHA 49082, 49083, 49084, 49085,
49372, 49373, 49592, 49593, 49655, 49768, 49769, 49850.
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