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Titles
Suggested titles are as follows:
- 'an arrangement in yellow' (1881, Whistler). 1
- 'Arrangement in Yellow: Portrait of Lily Langtry' (1980, YMSM). 2
'Arrangement in Yellow: Portrait of Lily Langtry' is the preferred title.
Description
A portrait of a woman in a yellow robe.
Sitter
Mrs Langtry, side face, leaning against screen, right arm on pedestal, photograph, 1885, The National Archives, Kew
Lily Langtry (1853-1929) née Emily Charlotte Le Breton, married Edward Langtry in 1874 and Sir Hugo de Bathe in 1899. She made her debut as an actress in the role of Kate Hardcastle in She stoops to conquer at the Haymarket Theatre in December 1881. 3
According to George Washburn Smalley (1833-1916), Whistler said of Lily Langtry: 'Her beauty is simply exquisite, but her manner is more exquisite still'; Smalley suggested she took up painting. 4
She was painted by George Francis (Frank) Miles (1852-1894), John Everett Millais (1829-1896), Edward Coley Burne-Jones (1833-1898) and others. Millais' portrait, A Jersey Lily (Jersey Museum and Art Gallery), was exhibited to great acclaim at the Royal Academy in 1878.
Notes:
1: Whistler to H. E. Whistler, [September 1881], GUW #06694.
2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 227).
3: A photograph of her in this costume, Lily Langtry, London Stereoscopic & Photographic Company, published by Charles Dickens & Evans, woodburytype, 1 February 1882, is in the National Portrait Gallery, Ax35618.
4: Quoted by Langtry, Lily, The Days I Knew, London, 1925, pp. 63, 67, 143. Photographs of her at this time appear in Theatre, photographs of sitter, 1882, p. 65 and 1885, p. 1.
Last updated: 9th November 2019 by Margaret
