The Winged Hat
1890
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
1890
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
This lithograph shows a man wearing a huge top hat with wings on the sides. The hat looks like it could fly off his head at any moment. Whistler used simple black lines to make the hat stand out against the plain background. Whistler often played with shapes and shadows in his prints. Here, he turned a hat into something almost alive. The wings aren’t real—they’re just lines, but they trick your eye. Try comparing his linework to Whistler, James McNeill’s other prints.
