Object Details
Artist
Augustus John
Date
1903
Medium
Etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 6 3/8 × 3 3/4 inches (16.2 × 9.5 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired through the Marcia Jacobson and Daniel R. Schwarz Johnson Museum Purchase Fund
Object
Number
2018.006
Augustus John met Whistler while visiting his sister the artist Gwen John in Paris. She was attendin(…)
Augustus John met Whistler while visiting his sister the artist Gwen John in Paris. She was attending classes at the Académie Carmen, where Whistler stopped by weekly for critiques and lessons. This early etching of the Johns’ friend, Ursula Tyrwhitt, shows Augustus’ inclination to mimic Whistler in the cutting of the sheet to the platemark while leaving the “tab” below for his signature. John, like Whistler, was a complex personality, who lived his own idea of a bohemian lifestyle. While not as talented, in his early years as a student at the Slade School in London, his teachers predicted great things for him and his drawing was even compared to Michelangelo’s. (“The Touch of the Butterfly: Whistler and His Influence,” curated by Nancy E. Green and presented at the Johnson Museum August 4-December 16, 2018)
