Weary

1863

Not on view

Whistler depicts the celebrated Irish beauty Joanna Hiffernan—his model and mistress—sunk in an armchair, engulfed by a long skirt and loose hair, her lips parted as if to speak. The delicate paper captures the soft, drypoint lines and conveys a sensual mood. The light sketch of a girl’s head (in the lower left of the sheet) suggests that Whistler first worked on the plate from the opposite direction with another subject in mind. Drypoint lines were scratched directly into the copper to produce this famous image.

Artwork Details

Title: Weary
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (American, Lowell, Massachusetts 1834–1903 London)
Date: 1863
Medium: Drypoint, printed in black ink on tissue weight ivory Japan; fourth state of six (Glasgow)
Dimensions: Plate: 7 11/16 x 5 1/16 in. (19.6 x 12.8 cm)
Sheet: 10 3/4 x 6 11/16 in. (27.3 x 17 cm)
Classification: Prints
Credit Line: Gift of William Loring Andrews, 1883, transferred from the Library
Object Number: 83.1.28
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

By James McNeill Whistler

In the same medium

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The artist's butterfly in an enlarged version with a forked tail

James McNeill Whistler

19th century

Reading, James McNeill Whistler American, Lithograph with scraping; printed in black ink on grayish chine mounted on ivory wove paper; fourth state of four (Chicago) — Reading
James McNeill Whistler
1879

Windsor (Memorial), James McNeill Whistler American, Drypoint; third state of four (Glasgow); printed in dark brown ink on ivory laid paper — Windsor (Memorial)
James McNeill Whistler
1887

Early Morning, James McNeill Whistler American, Lithotint with scraping, on a prepared half-tint ground, printed in black ink on cream wove paper; third state of four (Chicago) — Early Morning
James McNeill Whistler
1878

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