The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of May 14, 2024
Cameo, No. 1 (Mother and Child)
c. 1890–1893
Location: not on view
Description
Among a group of etchings Whistler made from a nude or partly draped model around 1890 was a pair entitled Cameo No. 1 and Cameo No. 2, showing a young mother playing with her child. Here, the mother leans over the child in an enclosed, protective gesture, perhaps whispering a lullaby. Whistler's treatment of the figure's robe, a semi-classical design based on Roman dress, captured the translucent qualities of the drapery which partly reveals and partly conceals the form beneath. Of this group, the artist's favorite etching was Cameo No. 1, and in 1893 he chose it to be exhibited among a selection of his prints at the Chicago World's Fair. American collectors, however, found Cameo No. 1 too risqué, and the artist was told it was unsalable because of "the thinness of the drapery."- Mary Cassatt and the Feminine Ideal in Nineteenth-Century Paris. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (October 14, 2012-January 20, 2013).
- {{cite web|title=Cameo, No. 1 (Mother and Child)|url=false|author=James McNeill Whistler|year=c. 1890–1893|access-date=14 May 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1923.29