The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Whistler Smoking probably dates from soon after Whistler's arrival in Paris in November 1855, probably between 1856 and 1858.

Whistler Smoking, private collection

However, Théodore Duret (1838-1927) suggested it was painted slightly later, between 1859 and 1860. ¹

It is possible that this is identical with the Self-Portrait y008, which is said to have dated from 1856/1857.

Images

Subject

Titles

Suggested titles are as follows:

• 'Portrait de Whistler' (1904, Duret). ²
• 'Portrait of Whistler with hat' (1908, Pennell). ³
• 'Whistler Smoking' (1913, Gallatin). ⁴
• 'Whistler Smoking' (1921, Pennell). ⁵
• 'Whistler Smoking' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

'Whistler Smoking' is the preferred title.

Description

Whistler Smoking, Private collection

A head and shoulders portrait in vertical format, showing a young man with curly black bushy hair, and a neat dark moustache. He is in three-quarter view to left, with his hand holding a cigarette at left. He wears a dark jacket over a spotted black and white cravat loosely tied round his neck. A flat, wide brimmed straw hat with a shiny grey/black ribbon, sits on his head at a sharp angle from left to upper right.

Albert Eugene Gallatin (1882-1952) described it in 1913:

'Head and shoulders. Face, which is turned to left, is seen in three-quarters. A straw hat, about which is a grey ribbon, is perched upon the artist's long, black, curly hair. The painter wears a black coat, and about his neck is a loose black scarf with white spots. In the right hand, which is just indicated, is a cigarette; smoke issues from his mouth. The background of the portrait is dark. The face is rather carefully modelled, the rest of the picture freely painted.' ⁷

Sitter

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). This portrait may be the same as Self-Portrait y008.

In appearance Whistler looks a little older than his earliest etched self-portrait, Portrait of Whistler [5], which dates from 1857. Both show him smoking, despite dire warnings from his mother, who wrote to him in 1856:

'A sad warning of the evil effects of smoking I could tell you, but I forbear[,] you know my Son how I have tried to impress my boys to avoid every leading to vice or debauch. My daily prayer is that you may "keep to innocency." ' ⁸

Carjat & Cie, J. McN. Whistler, 1864, photograph, GUL Whistler PH1/95

Carjat & Cie, J. McN. Whistler, 1864, photograph, GUL Whistler PH1/96

Later photographs by Etienne Carjat (1828-1906) show Whistler with a much less bohemian appearance. ⁹

Comments

According to A. E. Gallatin, Joseph Pennell (1860-1926) refused to comment on the authenticity of this self portrait, but it was accepted by Gallatin and Théodore Duret (1838-1927):

'M. Theodore Duret, who viewed this portrait in my company in Paris, June, 1913, told me that in his opinion the painting was unquestionably from Whistler's brush. He put the date at about 1862. Mr. Joseph Pennell, to whom I showed a full-sized photograph of the portrait a month later, declined to express an opinion regarding its authenticity without seeing the original. He would place the date, judging by the artist's appearance, three years earlier than M. Duret. I regard the painting as being in all probability a work of the master and have therefore catalogued it as such.' ¹⁰

The Pennells condemned the portrait as 'a clumsy attempt to imitate Whistler in the Big Hat, as well as the etching of the same subject'. ¹¹ However, they seem to have based their judgment on the published reproductions of the painting. Since few works survive from this period in Whistler's life, it is difficult to state categorically what defines his early work, but this appears to qualify as a vivid self-portrait painted by Whistler in the late 1850s.

Technique

Technique

Whistler Smoking, private collection

It is painted thickly and densely, in rich colours, with bold modelling. It was painted with brushes, with no trace of palette knife. The hand was brushed in cursorily, and appears unfinished.

Gallatin noted: 'the face is rather carefully modelled, the rest of the picture freely painted.' ¹²

Conservation History

The wood panel has been laid down on a cradled panel.

Frame

Described by Andrew McLaren Young (1913-1975) as 'Whistler style, flat frame with dark brown wood, gilt edged slip' with the number '19890' stamped on the verso and a label, 'No. 93167 ... dientige ... Reinhard.' ¹³

Labels and notes on the verso of the frame were recorded by Caroline Seabolt, Christie's, New York, in October 2021. An old label, now torn, with bears the partial inscription 'No. 93 …', and this was presumably the Reinhard label recorded by Professor Young. In addition she notes the stamp, '1989'0; two written notes, 'HR/2763' and '7343'; a label, 'L.67.51.7'; illegible pencil markings possibly including 'AI' and 'HHL'; and finally a fairly recent label, 'James Abbott McNeill Whistler/ C: Whistler Smoking/ S:/ Owner: E. De Saint Phalle'.

History

Provenance

• 1912: according to Albert Eugene Gallatin (1882-1952), it was sold by a French family to Jacques Seligmann (1858–1923), of Jacques Seligmann & Co., art dealer in Paris and New York; ¹⁴
• 1913, May: sold by Seligman to Henry Reinhardt (1859–1921), art dealer, Chicago, Paris and New York;
• 1913, June: sold by Reinhardt to Henry Ruben Ickelheimer (1868-1940), New York;
• ca 1940: passed to his son Philip Henry Isles (née Ickelheimer) (1912-1960), New York;
• ca 1960: bequeathed to his widow, Mrs Thibaut de St Phalle (dates unknown).
• 2021, July 21: after the death of Mrs Thibaut de St Phalle, passed to her estate;
• 2021, November 11: auction, Christie's, New York, 11 November 2021 (lot 33C).

It is possible that this is the same painting as Self-Portrait y008, in which case it was once owned by H. Aubrée (d. ca 1879) in France, and in the family of Louis Aubrée (fl. 1870-1899) until at least 1899.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's life time.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 9) as 'Whistler Smoking'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Duret, Théodore, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son oeuvre, Paris, 1904, pp. 7, 15, engraving by Guérard repr. p. 7.
• Duret, Théodore, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son oeuvre, 2nd edition, Paris, 1914, p. 11.
• Gallatin, Albert Eugene, The Portraits and Caricatures of James McNeill Whistler: An Iconography, London, New York and Toronto, 1913, pp. 2-3, 17-18 (cat. no. 2) repr. f. p. 17.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, repr. f. p. 190.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 6th (revised) edition, Philadelphia and London, 1919, p. 52.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, repr. f. p. 29 as 'Attributed to Whistler'.
• Singletary, Suzanne M., James McNeill Whistler and France: A Dialogue in Paint, Poetry, and Music, London and New York, 2017.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• E. Alder, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Portraitures of James McNeill Whistler, New York, 1915, p. 13.
• The Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collection of Whistleriana, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1921, p. 27 (cat. no. 144).

SALE:

• Christie's, New York, 11 November 2021 (lot 33C).

Journals 1906-Present

• F. G., "Reviews", The Burlington Magazine, 1916, vol. 29, pp. 131-132.
• N.N., "Art: Whistler", The Nation, 1 February 1919, vol. 108, no. 2796, p. 176.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'James McNeill Whistler: An Artist on Artists', in: Visual Culture in Britain, vol. 16, Issue 2, 2015, pp. 200-22, Taylor and Francis Online, DOI: 10.1080/14714787.2015.1038437, p. 1, note 8.

Websites

• 'Property from the Collection of Elene Canrobert Isles de Saint Phalle. James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). Whistler Smoking', Christie's, New York, 11 November 2021, website.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 2) 'Whistler Smoking'.

Other

• None.