Technique

A Paris Model, The Hunterian

It was painted on a fine, fairly open-weave canvas and is unlined. It may have been primed first in cream and then grey, the grey brushstrokes following the curve of the canvas, and then possibly rubbed down. Whistler often rubbed down the paint as part of his painting process, and in this case it can be seen in the lower half of the canvas, where the scraping has reduced the priming layer, and taken the top off the weave of the canvas itself. 1

The girl's features and the top of the dress were outlined in a crayon-like material, and the head was quite highly finished, although the grey priming is still visible. The background was painted with thinned paint, brushed in lightly, so that it does not drip. 2

The Hunterian commented: 'The high level of finish seen on the head in relation to the rest of the picture is unusual. Normally Whistler preferred to establish the overall tonal and colour relationships before filling in the details.' 3 However, it is quite clear that the portrait was not finished.

Conservation History

The unlined canvas is rather dry and brittle. 4

Frame

A Paris Model, The Hunterian

A Paris Model, frame detail

Oval casetta moulding. The frame has the stamp of the Maison Chapuis, Paris, on the back. 5 Claude Chapuis (1829-1908) was making frames for two oval portraits for Whistler in October 1898. Whistler wrote to his sister-in-law on 28 October 1898, 'I want you to drive over to Chapuis ... and say that Monsieur hopes he is getting on all right with the two ovals - and his frames - Ask when I am to have them.' 6 It is quite possible one of these was for A Paris Model, although it was virtually the same size as The Widow [YMSM 459], Lillie: An Oval [YMSM 465], Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit [YMSM 506], and Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen [YMSM 507].