Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Artist's Mother
1879
Medium
Mezzotint in black on cream China paper, laid down on cream wove paper (chine collé)
Dimensions
Image: 31.5 × 35.2 cm (12 7/16 × 13 7/8 in.); Plate: 43.8 × 44.1 cm (17 1/4 × 17 3/8 in.); Primary support: 42.4 × 42.7 cm (16 3/4 × 16 13/16 in.); Secondary support: 53 × 63.8 cm (20 7/8 × 25 1/8 in.)
Classification
mezzotint
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
28594
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Charles Augustus Howell, a cunning entrepreneur as well as a friend of Whistler, commissioned Richard Josey to create this mezzotint of Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1 in 1878. Whistler was struggling financially and hoped that the sale of the print would generate funds at the same time that he was using the painting itself as collateral against badly needed loans. A process that reached its apogee in 18th-century England, mezzotint printmaking involves a subtractive process of burnishing aw...