National Museum of Asian Art
Annabel Lee
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) · 1885-1887
When Freer purchased this drawing of a statuesque figure, he noted that the seller thought the subject was Niobe. The drawing has carried the title Annabel Lee since 1905. Both subjects are associated with the sense of death. Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus; she was turned to stone while bewailing the loss of her children. Annabel Lee, who probably symbolized Edgar Allan Poe's young wife, also is lost:
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