The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of Miss Leyland (2) dates from between 1872 and 1875. ¹ It is dated from Whistler's known visits to Speke Hall, and his drypoint portraits.

According to the Pennells, Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) commissioned paintings of his four children. ² Leyland's wife, Frances Leyland (1834-1910), told the Pennells, '[Whistler] would work on them in the Lindsey Row house and then take the canvases up to Speke Hall and work on them there. Her children were awfully good about it, though they got fearfully tired.' ³

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Portrait of Miss Leyland (2)' (1980, YMSM). ⁴

Description

According to Way & Dennis, 'At least three studies of Mr. Leyland's daughters were painted . . . [in one] the model, in a long white dress with a large white hat, stands on gray matting against a black background'. ⁵

Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland', British Museum

The description corresponds to a pen drawing, Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland' m0501, which shows a girl standing against a dark background in a light dress, facing forward; she has a large hat and long hair, and there are three rows of flounces on her full-length skirt.

Sitter

This may have been a portrait of Fanny Leyland (1857-1880), the eldest Leyland daughter, who was born 29 October 1857. She became the second wife of James Stevenson (1838-1926) but died shortly after the birth of their son, Frances Herbert Stevenson (1880-1949).

In 1874 Whistler made a drypoint of her, Fanny Leyland [135], in a seated pose; she had long curly hair, and was wearing a long flounced dress.

Although known as Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland' m0501, it is difficult to tell if this is really a study for Portrait of Miss Leyland (2) y110 because other portraits, such as Miss May Alexander y127, show a girl in similar dress.

A pen drawing, Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland' m0501, was reproduced by Duret, without identification, and by the Pennells, wrongly identified as a study for Miss May Alexander y127. ⁶

Technique

Technique

Unknown.

Conservation History

Unknown. Probably destroyed by Whistler.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• 1879: bought by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
• 1897: probably returned to Whistler.

According to the Pennells, a large six-foot canvas of a Miss Leyland was acquired by the London printer Thomas Way at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy and returned to him much later:

'Some years later on, Thomas Way gave him back one roll of large six-foot full-length portraits: the Sir Henry Cole., a Miss May Alexander, three Miss Leylands. One of these three is probably the painting in the Brooklyn Museum. Of another in riding habit, a drawing reproduced in M. Duret's Whistler, T. R. Way said was a sketch, though it looks to us more like the Mrs. Cassatt.' ⁷

This was probably one of the 'unfinished portraits of two of [Leyland's] daughters', painted 'in a very high key', and 'more or less destroyed' by Whistler at the time of his bankruptcy in 1879, according to T.R. Way, and bought by a picture dealer, after Leyland had refused to take them, on behalf of Thomas Way Sr. T. R. Way hung them in his rooms until Whistler asked him to take them down.

Portrait of Miss Leyland (2) y110 was presumably one of the '10 large portraits' that Thomas Way returned at the time of his final settlement with Whistler in 1897. ⁸

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

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. 110) as 'Portrait of Miss Leyland (2)'.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 501).

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, drawing repr. p. 147.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 175; vol. 2, drawing repr. f.p. 237.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 101, 134.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, p. 46.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, pp. 29-30, 135-36, 139.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Whistler. The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, Agnew and Sons, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; City Art Gallery, Glasgow, 1976 (ref, cat. no. 67).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.