Fumette
Medium
Etching, printed in black ink on fine ivory laid paper; fifth state of five (Glasgow)
Dimensions
Plate: 6 7/16 × 4 5/16 in. (16.4 × 11 cm) Sheet: 6 5/8 x 4 9/16 in. (16.8 x 11.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of William Loring Andrews, 1883, transferred from the Library
Accession Number
83.1.26
Tags
Art Historical Context
James McNeill Whistler’s *Fumette* (1858) captures a poised young woman—likely a Parisian model nicknamed "Little Smoker"—in a moment of quiet intensity. Created during Whistler formative years in Paris, this reflects his immersion in the French art scene, where he befriended Realist painters like Henri Fantin-Latour and Alphonse Legros. title, French slang for a female smoker, evokes the bohemian undercurrents of mid-19th-century Paris, blending everyday realism with Whistler’s emerging aesthetic sensitivity. Printed in black ink on fine ivory laid paper, this fifth state of five (as catalog...
About the Artist
James McNeill Whistler · 1834–1903
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was an American-born painter and printmaker who became a leading figure in the Aesthetic Movement and pioneer of Tonalism and Japonisme. He revolutionized art by championing "art for art's sake" and treating paintings as visual equivalents of musical compositions, titling works as "arrangements," "harmonies," and "nocturnes" to emphasize formal qualities o...