The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

This Self-Portrait is difficult to date, either from the technique, because it is not finished, or from Whistler's appearance.

1864/1879:

Carjat & Cie., J. McN. Whistler, photograph 1864/1865, GUL Whistler PH1/95

London Stereoscopic Co., J. McN. Whistler, photograph 1879, GUL Whistler PH1/97

Photographs of the artist dating from the mid-1860s and late 1870s show one distinctive change, the appearance of a distinctive white lock in his dark curly hair in the later photographs. It was in the early 1870s that Whistler began to arrange his hair so that this was visible, according to his mother, Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881). ¹

Self-Portrait, Freer Gallery of Art

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter, Detroit Institute Of Arts

1870/1875: Self-Portrait y124 was dated 'about 1870/5' in the 1980 catalogue raisonné. ² It was dated by comparison with other portraits of Whistler, such as Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter y122. However, the technique is different, and suggests a later date for the Self-Portrait under discussion.

1878/1879: The provenance of this work has not been securely established but suggests that it was given in payment of debts to Whistler's grocer: this could imply a date about the time of his bankruptcy, but could also apply to a much later date.

H.S. Mendelssohn, J. McN. Whistler, photograph 1884/1888, GUL Whistler PH1/108

1891: A photograph taken in the mid-1880s shows the conspicuous white lock in Whistler's hair, and does resemble Whistler's appearance in this portrait to some extent, particularly in regard to the size of the moustache. Another photograph, dated 1891, comes somewhat closer to his appearance in the Self-Portrait under discussion. Unfortunately none of these photographs are conclusive in dating the portrait.

Self-Portrait, Freer Gallery of Art

Self-Portrait, Fogg Art Museum

1893/1894: Whistler was probably working on more than one self portrait during this period, and references in books and letters could refer to this Self-Portrait y124 or the Self-Portrait y416 in the Fogg Art Museum. For instance, the Pennells suggest a date of 1893/1894 for a self-portrait that was reworked in 1896 or later. ³ Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) remembered seeing Whistler at work on several self-portraits, possibly including this: he does not specify a date but it could have been when Whistler was at work on Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert y338. ⁴ Arthur Jerome Eddy (1859-1920) saw a self-portrait in Whistler's studio in 1894, but mentioned no details. ⁵

1895: Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896) wrote to the art dealer Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) that Whistler was painting a portrait, possibly this one or Brown and Gold y440: 'He thinks he will be through with his portrait by the end of next week.' ⁶

1896: Self-Portrait y124 may be the self-portrait described by the Pennells as 'in the white jacket, which was changed into a black coat after Mrs. Whistler's death' in 1896. ⁷ There are some traces on the shoulders of a change of colour. This is the main reason for suggesting that Self-Portrait y124 dates from the 1890s. However, X-rays of the painting give no indication of a white jacket.

Images

Subject

Titles

Suggested titles include:

• 'Sketch of Mr. Whistler' (1910, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). ⁸
• 'Self-Portrait' (1980, YMSM). ⁹

'Self-Portrait' is the preferred title.

Description

Self-Portrait, Freer Gallery of Art

A half-length portrait, in vertical format, of a man in profile to right. He wears a dark jacket over a white collar, and a black hat with a narrow brim. He has a moustache and curly dark hair, with a white lock visible just under the hat-brim, at the front. The background is dark grey.

Sitter

H.S. Mendelssohn, J. McN. Whistler, photograph 1884/1888, GUL Whistler PH1/108

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903). This is one of many self-portraits, spanning Whistler's entire career, namely Self-Portrait y008, Portrait of Whistler with Hat y023, Self-Portrait y078, Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter y122, Self-Portrait y124, Brown and Gold y440, Self-Portrait y460, Self-Portrait y461, and Gold and Brown y462.

Comments

The Pennells, on the strength of a reproduction, doubted the authenticity of Self-Portrait y124. ¹⁰ Andrew McLaren Young (1913-1975), on the other hand, was inclined to accept the picture, as being of about the same date as the self-portrait in Detroit (Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter y122).

It is worth noting that its provenance suggests that it was given in settlement of Whistler's debts to a grocer in Cheyne Walk, where Whistler lived, off and on, for many years. Although at first it seems unlikely that Whistler would give anyone an unfinished self-portrait, it is not impossible, given his precarious financial state in the late 1870s, and indeed, his erratic fortunes much later.

The Greaves family, including the Whistler's pupil and admirer, the artist Walter Greaves (1846-1930) also lived in Cheyne Walk, and Greaves painted a number of portraits of Whistler, including a striking portrait in the National Portrait Gallery (NPG 4497), and some less competent ones, probably done from memory. ¹¹ There are inevitable similarities between portraits of Whistler by Greaves and those by Whistler, and it is just possible that this Self-Portrait y124 is by Greaves.

Finally, although the authenticity of the painting has been questioned, the authors of the 1980 catalogue and of this online catalogue believe, on the whole, that the Self-Portrait under discussion to be by Whistler. Its date, however, remains a mystery.

Technique

Composition

Some alterations are visible: the size of the hat has been reduced and the face moved to the left; the white collar was painted over the black coat.

Technique

Self-Portrait, Freer Gallery of Art

It is on fine weave canvas. It was painted thinly, with areas such as the face rubbed down as part of the painting process, and touched up with a few bolder strokes on the collar and face; it was almost certainly not completed.

Conservation History

According to Freer Gallery files, it was cleaned and 'repaint' was removed in 1921, relined and resurfaced in 1922, resurfaced in 1937, and cleaned, re-relined and resurfaced in 1950. It was cleaned and surfaced in 1951.

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: said to have been given by Whistler to Elizabeth Carolina Hughes, Mrs W. J. Stevens (d. 1900), Chelsea;
• By 1900; given by Mrs Stevens to her daughter Janet Elizabeth Eason, née Hughes (1853-1928), Parson's Green, London;
• 1904?: sold by Mrs Eason to Obach, London art dealers;
• 1904: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, in May 1904;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Whistler's ward and executrix Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) understood that it was 'given by Whistler in payment of a grocer's account. The grocer and wine merchant married the daughter of a Mrs. Carolina Stevens who was of good family. Her name was Mrs. Eason, of 76 Cheyne Walk and she sold the picture.' ¹² This is not entirely accurate, but helps to confirm the identity of the earliest owners.

Whistler lived at 2 Lindsey Row (96 Cheyne Walk) until 1878, 21 Cheyne Walk from 1890-1892, and 72 Cheyne Walk from 1902 until his death in 1903. Walter Greaves (1846-1930) and family lived further along the row, at No. 31.

In 1850, William John Stevens (b. ca 1822) married Elizabeth Caroline Hughes. In 1881, the UK census records William John Stevens, aged 59, grocer, and his wife Elizabeth Caroline, aged 56, living at 76 Cheyne Walk in Chelsea. Their daughter Janet was born in Chelsea in 1853. By 1891, the widowed Elizabeth Carolina Stevens, her age given as 68, was living with her daughter, Janet Elizabeth Eason, aged 36, and son-in-law Samuel Eason, merchant's clerk, aged 39, and their children Harry John (13) and Alfred (7) at 156 Beaufort Street in Chelsea. The death of Elizabeth Carolina Stevens is recorded in Fulham in 1900. By the following year, at the time of the 1901 UK census, Samuel Eason and his wife Janet and family were living at 15 Crondace Road in South Fulham, London. Janet Elizabeth Eason died on 20 July 1928. ¹³

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), who bought the painting in 1904, recorded that it was given by Whistler 'in discharge of debt' to a lady who had posed for Whistler, and who gave the painting to her daughter 'Mrs. Eason, Crondace Rd, Parson's Green.' ¹⁴ There is no record of Elizabeth Carolina (or Caroline) Stevens (or Hughes) posing for Whistler, but it is not impossible. It is also entirely possible that the painting was given to her husband, the grocer, in payment of debts at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy. It is also likely, but not certain, that it passed to Mrs Eason on her mother's death in 1900.

What is certain is that Mrs Eason sold the painting to Obach, London dealers, and they sold it to C. L. Freer in May 1904 for about £2000, as part of the deal to purchase Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot be lent.

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. 124), plate 77, as 'Self-Portrait'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907, p. 160 (cat. no. 32).
• Gallatin, Albert Eugene, The Portraits and Caricatures of James McNeill Whistler: An Iconography, London, New York and Toronto, 1913, p. 18 (cat. no. 3), repr. after p. 24.
• Gallatin, Albert Eugene, Portraits of Whistler: A Critical Study and an Iconography, New York and London, 1918, pp. 6, 26, repr. pl. 3.
• Gallatin, Albert Eugene, Portraits of Whistler: A Critical Study and an Iconography, New York and London, 1918, pp. 6, 26, repr. pl. 3.
• Hartmann, Sadakichi C. (pseudonym of Sidney Allen), The Whistler Book: A Monograph of the Life and Position in Art of James McNeill Whistler, Together with a Careful Study of His More Important Works, Boston, 1910, p. 8.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, p. 57.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, repr. f. p. 25 as 'Portrait attributed to Whistler'.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION

• Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948 (1904.62).
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 112, 292, pl. 14.

EXHIBITION

• Levy, Florence N., Paintings in oil and pastel by James McNeill Whistler, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1910, repr.
• Loan Exhibition of Pictures by T. W. Dewing, A. H. Thayer, D. W. Tryon, J. A. McN. Whistler, Montross Gallery, New York, 1910, repr. p. 10 as 'Sketch of Mr. Whistler'.
• Exhibition of portraitures of James McNeill Whistler, The Memorial art gallery, Rochester, New York, 1915 (cat. no. 26).
• Portraits of Whistler and other Whistleriana, Arden Gallery, New York, 1918-1919.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.62a-b.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 5) 'Self portrait … Portrait sketch of Mr Whistler'.

Other

• None.