The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study in Blue, Pink and Gold is difficult to date, because of Whistler's habit of re-working drawings. It could date from the late 1860s, but it is more likely to date from 1871/1873. It was reworked by the artist at the turn of the century.

Study in Blue, Pink and Gold, Colby College Museum of Art

It is related to several drawings dating from the 1870s including r.: Blue and Gold; v.: Ship m0399 and Note in flesh-colour gold - The Golden Blossom m0402.

It was kept by the model, Eva Victoria Carrington (1887-1979), who was posing for Whistler between 1898 and 1902.

Images

Subject

Description

Study in Blue, Pink and Gold, Colby College Museum of Art

A standing figure of a woman in transparent robe, turned to the left but facing the viewer. Her left arm is raised almost to her shoulder, holding a short slender branch. Her right hand reaches out in front of her and a white line suggests she is holding something. Her features are barely visible. She has a pink ribbon round her hair, a yellow ribbon under her breasts, and a yellow ribbon or bracelet round her left wrist. There are faint horizontal lines behind her head, and to right of her shoulder (possibly a parasol).

Sitter

Bassano Ltd, Eva Carrington, Lady de Clifford, later Mrs Tate, 1913, National Portrait Gallery x80113

Eva Victoria Carrington (1887-1979). She and her sisterGladys Winifred Carrington (1889-1940) modelled for several Whistler pastels, including Eva and Gladys Carrington seated on a sofa m1528, and oils including Flesh Colour and Silver: The Card Players y496. Tall, beautiful and acrobatic, she became a dancer and actress. In Dublin in 1905, while starring as a Gibson Girl in The Catch of the Season with Seymour Hick's company, she met her first husband Jack Southwell Russell (1884-1909), 25th Baron de Clifford, becoming Lady de Clifford.

Technique

Composition

Study in Blue, Pink and Gold, Colby College Museum of Art

Blue and Gold, Fitzwilliam Museum

Note in flesh-colour gold - The Golden Blossom, The Hunterian

The pose and subject are related to several drawings including r.: Blue and Gold; v.: Ship m0399 and Note in flesh-colour gold - The Golden Blossom m0402.

Technique

Study in Blue, Pink and Gold, Colby College Museum of Art

This is an unusually large drawing. The background is rubbed and scumbled across the rough paper, the figure drawn more precisely in black and then filled on carefully in colour with pastels. Her face appears to have been rubbed out, the features completely obscured. There are some pentimenti, for instance, the robe originally hung straight down at the left, and her arms were tried out in slightly different positions.

Conservation History

The sheet is tall and narrow, with flecks of wood pulp, and a rough edge at the top.

Frame

On the frame there is the label of Henry John Murcott (1835-1910), picture frame manufacturer, 16 Hanover Street, Long Acre, London WC. The firm was at that address from 1864-1877. ¹ This appears to clash with the known history of the drawing; it is possible that the work was framed in an earlier picture frame.

In addition the frame bears the label of Hollander & Koekkoek, 35a St James's Street, London' with the date of 26 October 1906. It is not clear whether this relates to an exhibition or to framing the work.

History

Provenance

• 1890s: owned by the model, Eva Victoria Carrington (1887-1979);
• 1979: bequeathed to Virginia Ann Belmont, née Tate (1931-1997) and passed by descent to a private collector;
• 2012: sold to Betty Krulik Fine Art Ltd., New York;
• 2013:bought by Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) and Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933);
• 2013: given to Colby College Museum of Art, The Lunder Collection.

At some time before 2010, it was apparently with the Maas Gallery, London, but was not, as far as is known, sold by them.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• None.

Websites

• 'James Abbott MacNeill Whistler, Study in Blue Pink and Gold', Betty Krulik Fine Art website.
• Colby College Museum of Art website at http://www.colby.edu/museum.