The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0467
Portrait of the actress Isabel Bateman
Date
Portrait of the actress Isabel Bateman dates from 1872/1878.
Portrait of the actress Isabel Bateman, Colby College Museum of Art
The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no 467).
Images
Portrait of the actress Isabel Bateman, Colby College Museum of Art
Subject
Site
According to family tradition, drawn in the dressing-room of the Lyceum Theatre, London.
Sitter
Portrait of the actress Isabel Bateman, Colby College Museum of Art
The actress Isabel Bateman (1854-1934) was born in Ohio, and came from a theatrical family, being the daughter ot the actors Hezekiah Linthicum Bateman and Sidney Frances Bateman. They emigrated to England in 1863. Her full name was Isabel Emilie Bateman; both her sisters, Kate Josephine Bateman and Virginia Frances Bateman, were also actresses.
Isabel Bateman played leading roles with Henry Irving (1838-1905) during the 1870s, playing a sweet Ophelia to Irving's Hamlet in 1875, and Desdemona to Irving's Othello at the Lyceum Theatre. She later entered a Church of England convent and became a nun. 'Mother Mary', Superior General of the Community of St Mary in Wantage, died in June 1934.
Technique
Technique
Portrait of the actress Isabel Bateman, Colby College Museum of Art
See description in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no 467).
History
Provenance
- 1872/1878: acquired by the sitter, Isabel Bateman (1854-1934);
- 1934: bequeathed to her sister Ellen Grepo (1844-1937), New Jersey and Santa Monica;
- Before 1937: given to private collectors, who owned it until at least 1995.
- 2008: bought by Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) and Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933);
- 2013: given by Peter and Paula Lunder to the Colby College Museum of Art.
Exhibitions
It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no 467) as 'Portrait of the actress Isabel Bateman'.
Websites
- Colby College Museum of Art website at https://www.colby.edu/museum.