The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Palette drawn in a letter from Whistler in Paris to his wife, Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896), in London on 27 January 1892. ¹

Palette, Glasgow University Library

Whistler was starting to paint Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac y398 in the studio of Antonio de la Gandara (1862-1917). The table palette to be constructed by Frederick Henry Grau (1859-1892) was a gift to thank Gandara for the loan of his studio and for posing on occasion.

The drawing was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1323).

Images

Subject

Description

Palette, Glasgow University Library

Whistler's accompanying letter describes the table palette as follows:

'You must send for Grau and tell him to make at once, a palette exactly like mine - the same size, etc. - - with the little boxes all round for the paints - you know. - finish it at once - pack it up and send it to

Monsieur de La Gandara 22. / Rue Monsieur le Prince / Paris.'

I cannot tell you how courteous and kind he has been - nor can I exagerate [sic] the unheard of trouble I have given him - Happily this present from me will be for him a joy beyond all past annoyances - and I am sure you will wish him to have it' ²

Whistler and Portrait of Maud Franklin, photograph, GUL Whistler PH1/120

A photograph of Whistler at work on Portrait of Maud Franklin y353, reproduced above, probably in 1886, shows him using a table palette.

In 1886 George Augustus Sala (1828-1895) had described Whistler's Fulham Road studio, where he used such a table palette, and George Percy Jacomb Hood (1857-1929) painted the palette loaded with paint and oil. ³

Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac (1855-1921) described the palette as 'une vaste table d'acajou sur le coin de laquelle, en une minuscule plaque d'argent, voltige le butterfly'. ⁴

Technique

Technique

Palette, Glasgow University Library

The letter, written on all sides, was folded once horizontally and three times vertically for the post. The sketch, on the third side, a design for a table palette, was drawn in the same ink with a fine nib.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death in 1903 and bequeathed to his sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1955: given by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

It has not been exhibited.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1323) as 'Palette'.

Journals 1855-1905

• Salaman, Malcolm Charles, 'In Whistler's Studio', The Court and Society Review, vol. 3, 1 July 1886, pp. 588-90.

Books on Whistler

• Newton, Joy, La Chauve-Souris et le Papillon. Correspondance Montesquiou-Whistler, Glasgow, 1990, p. 149.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, palette repr. f.p. 122.

Websites

• The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, edited by Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp; including The Correspondence of Anna McNeill Whistler, 1855-1880, edited by Georgia Toutziari. Online edition, University of Glasgow, 2003-2004, GUW #06603.