Whistler Asleep 1897

Giovanni Boldini made this etching, "Whistler Asleep", sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. It depicts the famous artist James McNeill Whistler in repose. Boldini and Whistler were both part of the artistic milieu that flourished in Paris at this time, when the city was becoming a center for innovative printmaking. Printmaking was particularly interesting because it challenged the art world's established hierarchy by creating works that could be reproduced and distributed widely. It also provided artists with opportunities to represent the lives of ordinary people and question social norms. To more fully understand this image, we can look to periodicals, exhibition catalogs, and artists’ letters of the time. We might ask to what extent this image comments on artistic labor, genius and the politics of representation.