Maud, Standing

James McNeill Whistler's etching Maud, Standing shows Maud (Mary) Franklin, the artist's principal model and mistress in the 1870s and 1880s, in striking profile. She is fashionably dressed in a bonnet, a dark fur tippet, and a tightly fitting dress that flatters her slender figure. Her left hand holds back her skirt to allow the gown to hug her fine legs, a gesture that also shows to advantage the skirt's elegant cascade of flounces and fancy trim. Whistler presents a vision of poised young womanhood—a refined image that belies his artistic struggle to perfect it.

This particular impression of Maud, Standing is a later variant of an etching—the ninth state of twelve states—that evolved between 1873 and 1878 through a series of revisions to the plate. Compared with an earlier version of Maud, Standing (TF 1989.8), this impression reflects several changes: Whistler re-worked her soft, light-colored cloth tippet into a fuzzy fur that covers her dress neckline to better distinguish the profile of her head from the rest of her outfit; he further articulated her right arm, with its bent elbow and hand on her hip; he added shading, frills, and a train to the back of her skirt; he added shading to her back and slightly tapered her waistline; and he darkened and added folds to the curtain backdrop, to better set off Maud's figure. 

Like a sophisticated fashion plate, this print exemplifies Whistler's fastidious attention to costume and the latest fashion. As in his watercolor painting Maud on a Stairway (TF 1999.150), here the artist chose Maud's stylish attire and stance to convey her formal appearance and public persona, in contrast to his more intimate oil sketch of Maud napping, titled Note in Red: The Siesta (TF 1999.149). Maud eventually became Whistler's longtime mistress. She bore him two daughters and supported him through the most tumultuous events of his career, only to be abandoned by the artist in 1888, when he married Beatrice Godwin, widow of architect E.W. Godwin. Maud then moved to Paris and later married a wealthy New Yorker, with whom she had a son. Following her husband's death, she remarried, ultimately settling in Cannes, France, where she died.

Regard sur James Abbott McNeill Whistler (James Abbott McNeill Whistler at a Glance), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France (organizer). Venue: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, April 1–October 30, 1994.

Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, June 6–August 30, 1998. [exh. cat.]

On Process: The American Print, Technique Examined, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois (organizer). Venue: Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois, January 13–March 2, 2001.

Portrait of a Lady : peintures et photographies américaines en France, 1870–1915 (Portrait of a Lady: American Paintings and Photographs in France, 1870–1915), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France (organizers). Venues: Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, Giverny, France, April 1–July 14, 2008; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, September 25, 2008–January 5, 2009 (exhibited in Giverny). [exh. cat.]

Kennedy, Edward Guthrie. The Etched Work of Whistler. Illustrated by reproductions in collotype of the different states of the plates. New York: Grolier Club, 1910. No. 114 ix/xii

Lochnan, Katharine A. The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler. New Haven, Connecticut and London, England: Art Gallery of Ontario and Yale University Press, 1984. No. 118.

Regard sur cinq années d'expositions (Five years of Exhibitions at a Glance). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for the Arts, 1997. Text pp. 75–76; ill. p. 74 (color). [specific reference to Terra print]

MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Grace Galassi, and Aileen Ribeiro with Patricia de Montfort. Whistler, Women and Fashion. (exh. cat., The Frick Collection). New York: The Frick Collection in association with Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 2003. Text p. 139; fig. 130, p. 141.

Tedeschi, Martha and Britt Salvesen. "Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography." Museum Studies 24:1 (1998): 4–135. Text pp. 23, 31 (checklist); fig. 2, p. 23 (black & white). [specific reference to Terra print]

Lecomte, Vanessa, editor. Portrait of a Lady : peinture et photographies américains (exh. cat., Musée d'Art Américain Giverny and Musée des beaux-arts de Bordeaux). Chicago, Illinois: Terra Foundation for American Art, 2008. Text (checklist) p. 95.