The Little Nude Model, Reading

James McNeill Whistler

National Gallery of Art

Printed with gray lines and shading on cream-colored paper, a slender, nude young woman sits on a partially drawn cabinet in this vertical lithograph. She is just left of center with her body facing our left, almost in profile. A kerchief covers her upswept hair, and some loose curls escape onto her forehead. Her legs are crossed, and she tilts her head down looks at an object, possibly a book, in her hands, held in front of her chest. She leans a little back onto a loosely drawn pile behind her on the cabinet on which she sits. Her body is outlined along the curve of her neck, back, belly and thighs. The contours of her body are delicately shaded within that outline, and the texture of the paper is visible. The cabinet beneath her is suggested with a few lines. A few curving lines could be a stylized vine and leaf decoration on the side of the cabinet facing us. A few vertical and parallel lines to our left could be another piece of furniture in the background.