The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study for a dress dates from 1872/1874: the signature suggests this date.

Study for a dress, Fitzwilliam Museum

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no 465) where it is dated '1872/6'. The history has been updated.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Study for a dress, Fitzwilliam Museum

Possibly a study of Lady Clementine Redesdale (1854-1932) or Frances Leyland (1834-1910) or her sister Elizabeth Dawson (b. 1840).

Technique

Composition

Study for a dress, Fitzwilliam Museum

Possibly a study for the Portrait of Lady Redesdale y189, although the design of the dress also relates to Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106.

A similar study, with the model wearing a simpler dress, is A lady with a fan m0466,

History

Provenance

• 1870s: acquired by William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916);
• 1916: after his death, passed by family descent to a private collector;
• 2016: accepted by H. M. Government in Lieu of Inheritance Tax and allocated to the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Exhibitions

• 1903: possibly Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 41 or 42) as 'Study for a Dress'.
• 1903: probably Collection of Pictures, Drawings, Prints and China, and Decorative Furniture, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1903 (cat. no. 36 or 37) as 'Pastel Sketch'.
• 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. 171) as 'Study for Dress.'

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no 465) as 'Study for a dress'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 41 or 42) as 'Study for a Dress'.
• Possibly Collection of Pictures, Drawings, Prints and China, and Decorative Furniture, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1903 (cat. no. 36 or 37) as 'Pastel Sketch'.
• 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. 171) as 'Study for Dress.'

Websites

• Hale, Felix, 'Whistler’s Women to Join Fitzwilliam Museum Collection', Sotheby's, London, 2017, website, as 'The Lady in the Long Pink Dress'.
• 'The Study for a Masterpiece on Display after 100 Years', Fitzwilliam Museum, 12 December 2017, press- release.
• Fitzwilliam Museum website.

Other

• Whistler Society, Newsletter, London, December 2016.