The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4

CHARLES ABEL CORWIN Portrait of Whister, 1880
Reverie, most likely a portrait of his wife,
and probably from about 1895, is a
masterful image equal to his work in oils.
The freedom and assurance of his bravura
strokes of wiped area are even more
spontaneous and tactile in the face, where
the artist's use of the thumb is evident on
close observation. The obvious emotional
junction with the print's large size, gives
this monotype an extraordinary impact.
Frank Duveneck and the group of
American artist-friends studying with him
in Venice also employed the technique in
1880. During one of their gatherings a
student, Charles Abel Corwin, caught a
distinguished visitor, Whistler, in a con-
bold appearance of the artist's thumbprint
in the face, and the stark highlighting of
Whistler's shirt and coat, profile, and
dramatic lock of white hair. Himself a
skilled printmaker, Whistler was in Venice
to work on his famous First Venice Set of
etchings. His exposure to the monotype
process may have influenced the painterly