The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Tillie dates from 1870/1873.

TillieFogg Art Museum

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 367).

Images

Subject

Sitter

TillieFogg Art Museum

A photograph in the E. R. & J. Pennell Collection, Library of Congress, identified the model as 'Tillie'.

Matilda Maria Gilchrist née Potter (1826-1886) posed for the etching Tillie: A Model [113] and probably for the figure at left in The White Symphony: Three Girls y087 and The Three Girls y088.

Technique

Composition

The White Symphony: Three Girls, Freer Gallery of Art

The central figure, though facing left instead of right, may be study for the figure at left in The White Symphony: Three Girls y087 and The Three Girls y088.

History

Provenance

• By 1905: owned by Laurence W. Hodson (1864-1933), Compton Hall, Wolverhampton;
• 1906: sold at auction, Christie's, London, 25 June 1906 (lot 137) as 'Studies of Nudes', bought by James Tregaskis (1850-1926), London book and art dealer.
• Date unknown: acquired by Sir William Eden (1849-1915);
• 1915: Eden estate;
• 1918: sold at auction, Eden sale, Christie's, London, 1 March 1918 (lot 133) as 'Studies of female figures', bought by 'Wise' (possibly Wallis, London dealers);
• 1918: sold at auction, Wallis sale, Christie's, London, 10 May 1918 (lot 98) as 'Studies of female figures', bought by Colnaghi, London dealers;
• 1921: sold on 8 January to Scott and Fowles, New York dealers (label Scott & Fowles '5681').
• 1929: given by Philip Hofer (1898-1984) to the Fogg Art Museum.

For further details see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 367).

Exhibitions

• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 163) as 'Studies of Nudes'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 367) as 'Tillie'.
• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (oils, cat. nos. 87-8).
• Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online website.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 163) as 'Studies of Nudes'.Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908

Books, General

• Stebbins, Theodore E. Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, (eds), American Paintings at Harvard, Vol. 2, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press, Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008, p. 396, cat. no. 427, repr.

Websites

• Harvard Art Museums website at https://www.harvardartmuseums.org.