Prints and Authors in the Time of Manet

Maud Standing

Etching with drypoint, 1873
Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1985.61

In this print a young woman stands, posed in profile, facing left. A drapery curtain is suggested as the background. This is a full-length portrait of Maud (sometimes spelled Maude) Franklin, Whistler’s mistress and model in the 1870s and early 1880s. She was the subject of many of Whistler’s most beautiful oil paintings, drawings, and etchings.
Whistler is considered to be one of the 19th century’s greatest printmakers, in part because he utilized the full breadth of etching techniques to achieve the aesthetic he sought. Maud Standing was begun in 1873, and re-worked at various times throughout the 1870s and early 1880s. It exhibits all of Whistler’s best qualities in its deft handling of line and innovative manipulation of ink tone.