The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Mother and child probably dates from between 1891 and 1893. It is closely related to several lithographs, including Mother and Child, No. 1 c051, which is thought to date from 1891, and was transferred to stone and printed in 1895. ¹

Mother and child, The Hunterian

Dating of this drawing relies both on the medium, technique and paper, and on the identity of the models. By April 1891 Rose Amy Pettigrew (1872-1958) was posing for Whistler, sometimes with a sister and/or baby niece. In May 1892 Whistler described a pastel of a similar subject, Mother and Child m1285, as a 'figure with child on her knee' and in April of the following year, described another as 'girl seated with baby on her knee.' ² Thus drawings involving a young woman and baby may have been drawn from 1891 on, and were certainly on the market in 1892-1893.

It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1294) where it was dated '1890/1895'.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Mother and child, The Hunterian

Rose Amy Pettigrew (1872-1958) posed for this and the related lithographs, Mother and Child, No. 1 c051, Mother and Child, No. 3 c052, Mother and Child, No. 2 c053 and Mother and Child, No. 4 c054.

Technique

Technique

Mother and child, The Hunterian

This is a drawing in lithographic crayon with scraping and traces of stumping on papier viennoise lithographic transfer paper coated with a fine-grained lead-white ground. ³

It relates to Whistler's lithographic series, Mother and Child, No. 1 c051 et seq., which were probably drawn in 1891 and transferred and printed in 1895. The transfer, after so long a delay, was not successful. It may be that Whistler decided not to risk trying to transfer this drawing.

Conservation History

The paper and its lead-white ground are discoloured, and the sheet is torn at left.

History

Provenance

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

Exhibitions

It was not 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. 1294) as 'Mother and Child'.
• Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998, vol. 1, p. 504, 'Untransferred lithographic drawings' (no. IV) as 'Mother and Child'.

Books on Whistler

• Levy, Mervyn, Whistler Lithographs: A Catalogue Raisonné, London, 1975 (cat. no. 143) as a lithograph, 'Mother and Child'.

Websites

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