The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 18, 2024
The Trial Sermon, Joanna Douglas at Her Desk
1862
(American, 1834–1903)
block cut by
(British)
Image: 15.3 x 11.5 cm (6 x 4 1/2 in.); Sheet: 24.6 x 17.7 cm (9 11/16 x 6 15/16 in.)
Gift of Henry Sayles Francis 1941.135
Catalogue raisonné: Johnson 6
Location: not on view
Description
One of only a handful of illustrations created by American artist James McNeill Whistler, this image accompanied an anonymously published romantic, moralizing short story entitled “The Trial Sermon” that appeared in the 1862 issue of Good Words, a British periodical. Like many of Whistler’s paintings, his illustrations avoid narrative elements; he focused instead on character sketches, allowing him to explore the visual and technical possibilities of his medium. Lost in thought, the woman in the picture communicates very little of her interior life. Instead, Whistler’s rendering of the figure matches that of her surroundings, turning her into an aesthetic object.- From Block Books to Baskin: Artists as Illustrators. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 13-August 17, 1986).
- {{cite web|title=The Trial Sermon, Joanna Douglas at Her Desk|url=false|author=James McNeill Whistler, Dalziel Brothers|year=1862|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1941.135