The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Designs for wall decorations: r.: Designs for 2 Lindsey Row; r. and v.: Whistler's House, 2 Lindsey Row date from 1876/1878.

Designs for wall decorations: r.: Designs for 2 Lindsey Row; r. and v.: Whistler's House, 2 Lindsey Row, The Hunterian

They are fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 659).

Images

Subject

Site

Designs for wall decorations: r.: Designs for 2 Lindsey Row; r. and v.: Whistler's House, 2 Lindsey Row, The Hunterian

The site is probably Whistler's house at 2 Lindsey Row (96 Cheyne Walk), Chelsea, London.

Technique

Composition

Designs for wall decorations: r.: Designs for 2 Lindsey Row; r. and v.: Whistler's House, 2 Lindsey Row, The Hunterian

Sketch for hallway of 49 Princes Gate, The Hunterian

The inscription suggested that the designs at the top were for the house of Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) at 49 Princes Gate. However, the staircase in Leyland's hall started with a flight of about ten steps before curving to right for a further flight; furthermore it was decorated by Whistler with rectangular panels in a different style (see Panels from the Entrance Hall at 49 Princes Gate y175). ¹ The Lindsey Row staircase was much less grand, narrow and fairly steep.

The Japanese Dress, Davison Art Centre, Wesleyan University

The two designs have one feature in common, however. Whistler's rough pencil drawing, Sketch for hallway of 49 Princes Gate m0577, shows a large full-length painting on the wall at right (these are discussed in the catalogue entry for that sketch). Two small studies of the same painting appear to right of the staircase in the pen drawing, and several chalk and pastel drawings relate to the composition, including The Japanese Dress m1227, which is shown above. ² The painting has not survived, but these sketches suggest it was still in process in the late 1870s.

Designs for wall decorations: r.: Designs for 2 Lindsey Row; r. and v.: Whistler's House, 2 Lindsey Row, The Hunterian

The designs on the lower half of the sheet are undoubtedly for walls in Whistler's house in Lindsey Row (Cheyne Walk). According to Whistler's landlord, Sydney Morse (1854-1929), 'The hall had fine panels in blue on white by Whistler, 2 ships with sails set at sea. The house was coloured as "a sunset". The gold dado on the stairs was dotted with pink and white chrysanthemum petals.' ³ The Pennells, quoting Walter Greaves (1846-1930), record that one day when Whistler's mother was at church, he sent for the Greaves brothers and 'painted a great ship with spreading sails in each of the two panels at the end of the hall.' ⁴

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his sister-in-law and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1958: bequeathed by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

There is no record of an exhibition 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. 659) as 'Designs for wall decorations: r.: Designs for 2 Lindsey Row; r. and v.: Whistler's House, 2 Lindsey Row'.

Books on Whistler

• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, pp. 178-84, staircase at 49 Princes Gate repr. p. 178, fig. 4.29.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 139, 224.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 122-23.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.