The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Miss May Alexander dates from 1874-1875. ¹

The banker William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916) commissioned portraits of his daughters in the early 1870s. Whistler decided to start work on the portrait of Cicely Henrietta Alexander (1864-1932) before that of her elder sister, Agnes Mary ('May') Alexander (1862-1950). He wrote to their mother, Rachel Agnes Lucas (Mrs W. C. Alexander) (1837-1900):

'If you will not think me too capricious I wish that tomorrow you would bring the little fair daughter instead of her elder sister.

The fact is as you kindly wished every thing to be, in this matter, according to my fancy, I feel no hesitation in saying I should work at the present moment, with more freshness at this very "fair arrangement" I propose to myself, than at any other.' ²

Cicely herself wrote later:

'My father wanted him to paint us all, I believe, beginning with the eldest (my sister, whom he afterwards began to paint, but whose portrait was never finished). But after coming down to see us, he wrote and said he should like to begin with 'the light arrangement,' meaning me, as my sister was dark. So I was the first victim.' ³

Once he had completed Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander y129, Whistler wrote from the house of Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) at Speke Hall near Liverpool, and suggested starting the portrait of May Alexander when he returned to London:

'I fancy that I may be up in town by the end of this week ... and if pleasing to you all I will begin the picture of May - which I hear from the Mother you have lately thought of, and would like her painted in her riding habit -

... if you can give me a spare bed - I would offer to inflict myself upon Aubrey House for a week or so, and get at the picture every morning!' ⁴

The composition and dress of the sitter, including the conspicuous pot of flowers at left, suggest links with Whistler's portrait The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111 (an unfinished painting, which was probably still under way in 1874-1875).

May's portrait was probably started when Whistler returned from Speke in September 1874 (one drawing for the composition was actually drawn on F. R. Leyland's notepaper), and it was painted, according to W. C. Alexander, in the dining room at Aubrey House, Kensington. ⁵ The portrait was incomplete when W. C. Alexander paid Whistler £50 on account, on 1 February 1875. ⁶ Several weeks later, on 16 March 1875, Whistler's mother mentioned that Whistler was working on a portrait at Aubrey House. ⁷

Unfortunately sittings were postponed when May Alexander fell ill. Whistler wrote to W. C. Alexander, 'I hope May is now quite well again - and looking forward anxiously to the delight of standing one of these days.' ⁸ Later, probably in July 1876, Whistler wrote to his mother about a visit from the Alexanders to his studio: 'Mr and Mrs Alexander were here the other day, and are amazed and delighted with what they saw, and I am to paint either May, if she be able to stand, or little Gracie.' ⁹ However, according to Stevenson, it was 'interrupted in its early beginning by the illness of the young lady, and never taken up again'. ¹⁰ Many years later, the sitter's sister, Rachel Alexander (1875-1964) said that 'The sittings were interrupted for some reason or other and later Whistler did not want to bother to finish it.' ¹¹ This was a little harsh! In the confusion surrounding Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879, the painting was lost to sight – it was probably in the possession of one of Whistler's chief creditors, Thomas Way (1837-1915) – and by the time it reappeared some twenty years later, no further sittings were possible.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Miss May Alexander' (1898, Society of Portrait Painters). ¹²
• 'Portrait of Agnes Mary, Miss Alexander' (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). ¹³
• 'Portrait of Agnes Mary, Miss Alexander' (1905, ISSPG). ¹⁴
• 'Miss May Alexander' (1980, YMSM). ¹⁵
• 'Miss Agnes Mary Alexander' (Tate 2000). ¹⁶

Although 'May' was her nickname, not her actual name, the original title, 'Miss May Alexander', is preferred.

Description

Miss May Alexander, Tate Britain

The portrait of a young woman in three-quarter view to left, in vertical format. She wears a grey dress and black hat with a round, medium-broad, brim. Her hands are raised to her chest, as she pulls on gloves. Behind her is a grey wall and black dado. At left, behind her, is a round pot full of small yellow flowers.

A detailed description published in 1898 reads as follows:

'It is a full length. The graceful figure in grey is set against a grey wall, marvellously cool and tender and silvery in tone. The face is pale and delicate, the modelling as restrained as in the better-known Miss Alexander. The long, full skirts hang close about the feet, which they hide. One hand is held up slightly, while the other fastens the grey glove at the wrist. In the left-hand corner is a jar full of a pale golden flower, and little golden lights gleam here and there through the matting, around which runs a simple design in red outline - a harmony in grey and gold.' ¹⁷

Site

Whistler wrote to the sitter's mother, Rachel Agnes Lucas (Mrs W. C. Alexander) (1837-1900), and proposed moving in to the Alexander's house, Aubrey House in Kensington, in order to paint the picture in situ:

'[I]t occurs to me that if you like I will paint May in your own house - I think I should like this if you do not fear that I should be in the way - The new drawing room with its white and black wainscot is what I think of - it would be so delightful to be able to hang the picture up every now and then and see how it would look in its own proper place!' ¹⁸

W. C. Alexander (quoted by Cary) confirms that it was painted in the newly decorated dining room at Aubrey House, where the portrait was intended to hang. ¹⁹

Whistler designed an interior scheme for the Alexanders (seeDesigns for the arrangement of china in the dining room at Aubrey House m0487, r.: Colour schemes for the decoration of Aubrey House; v.: Head and shoulders of a nude m0492, etc. ²⁰

Sitter

Agnes Mary ('May') Alexander (1862-1950).

Agnes Mary, the eldest of Rachel and W. C. Alexander's daughters, was born in November 1862. Her sister Cicely was also painted by Whistler (Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander y129.

Technique

Composition

Miss May Alexander, Tate Britain

W. C. Alexander had suggested that May should pose in riding habit, and Whistler agreed, but suggested the addition of a hat made for the occasion. He wrote to Mrs Alexander:

'[T]here is a shop in South Audley Street, No. 63 - Milton & . . . something, who have charming felt hats, and feather "picture hats" they call them[,] such as you cannot get elsewhere - Perhaps if you were to ask you might see something lovely for May - large I should have it - with a big soft brim - looped up - however they know all about it - it is there [sic] speciality and doubtless will show you some lovely ones all bravely gotten up with large feather I suppose for I think it would be charming to paint May with the hat on, the feather swooping grandly away! ...

... The habit will be black I suppose - and the hat black felt or grey with white feather and black arrangement - Don't be afraid of having it too big - The Leyland children have hats from the South Audley street [shop], and if you were to say that Mrs Leyland recommended you to go there they will at once understand the sort of thing you wish and do their best.' ²¹

The shop, Walker and Milton, milliners, was close to Grosvenor Square.

Study for 'Portrait of Miss May Alexander', British Museum

Study for 'Portrait of Miss May Alexander', British Museum

There are two related drawings. A pen and wash drawing, Study for 'Portrait of Miss May Alexander' m0499, signed with a butterfly of ca 1874, closely resembles the final composition of May's portrait, but shows her with a riding crop under her left arm. She is standing on a tiled floor, with a large round pot of flowers behind her, at left. She wears a grey pleated dress with close-fitting buttoned top, and a big 'picture hat' with ribbons. These details were simplified and lost in the painting, so that the figure and dress harmonised with the background. ²²

Study for 'Portrait of Miss May Alexander', British Museum

The other, a pen sketch, Study for 'Portrait of Miss May Alexander' m0498, drawn on paper belonging to F. R. Leyland, is closer to the final composition, and shows her with her riding crop held diagonally out to left. The background is dark and she fades into it, except for her face and a sweeping feather on her hat.

Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland' m0501, showing a young woman in riding habit, seems to correspond most closely to the missing Portrait of Miss Leyland (2) y110.

Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland', British Museum

Yet another pen drawing, Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland' m0502, showing a girl in a white flounced dress, was thought by the Pennells to be a study for May's portrait, and could have been an idea for a portrait of May Alexander or Fanny Leyland or another young woman. ²³

Riding habit appealed to Whistler for its simplicity of colour and line and appears in several portraits, the most important being Arrangement in Brown and Black: Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder y203 and Arrangement in Black, No. 8: Portrait of Mrs Cassatt y250. ²⁴

Technique

Miss May Alexander, Tate Britain

It is painted extremely thinly, and some areas obviously rubbed down. The ghost-like face is particularly insubstantial. There are, however, vivid touches and free brushstrokes depicting some details.

A thorough examination of the canvas by Professor Joyce H. Townsend at Tate Britain resulted in the following detailed report:

'The painting has been lined with wax/resin and is in its original format, evidenced by the cusping marks that reveal its original attachment to a stretcher with tacks, though not on its original stretcher. The canvas is very coarse, with 10 threads per centimetre in the vertical direction and 15 in the horizontal direction. It was presumably sized, but was not primed before stretching. Whistler applied a very thin grey layer, which barely fills the hollows between the canvas threads, and which is not obvious on close examination. This may be underpainting beneath the figure and the vase of flowers, rather than an imprimatura which would cover the whole canvas. It is made from lead white, coarse bone black, a yellow pigment and traces of some other colours.

X-radiography does not suggest any major compositional changes. It shows clearly that Whistler scraped and rubbed much of the surface. The hat was reduced on the sitter’s right by scraping, and on the left by wiping off paint, while its crown was also lowered slightly. Something was painted out at her left ear and shoulder. Its original amplitude and height would have been closer to the sketched hats. Two buttons on the bodice were overpainted, and there is a suggestion that the neckline more resembled a deep shawl collar in an earlier version. The skirt has not been narrowed, but may have been widened in the course of painting. The eyes and eyebrows appear prominent in the X-radiograph because there is very little paint in these areas; Whistler painted the lighter areas of the face and left the eyes virtually unpainted.

From a study of the surface, it is difficult to distinguish the dress fabric from the background, since the pigments used to paint them are the same for both areas. Each application of paint was rubbed down before the next was applied. The background is a single layer, the sitter’s shadow being applied on top. The skirting board was created with additional layers applied over the background. The paint medium was highly thinned, and it has yellowed. This is a feature seen in much of Whistler’s highly-thinned paint, but such yellowing is not universal in paint of this date, hence it is a consequence of his choice of paint medium and thinners.

Rose madder, another red lake not further identified, Mars red and orange (a synthetic, brightly coloured form of iron oxide), cadmium yellow and possibly barium chromate, dark umber, a reddish/brown ochre, cerulean blue and Prussian blue were identified. These generally occur in mixtures, even in the more colourful areas such as the flowers, which establish a colour harmony.' ²⁵

Conservation History

Miss May Alexander, photograph, Pennell 1908

Miss May Alexander, Tate Britain

A photograph of it taken in 1908 shows that it has darkened: it appears much sunken in, rubbed down, and abraded. The face, in particular, is extremely faint and characterless.

Professor Townsend adds:

'The painting was varnished within a frame in the past, and in 1963 was varnished at Tate. Residues of several varnishes are present, all apparently of natural resin type, collectively very yellow in tone and with a fine crack pattern on the scale of the canvas threads.

The combined effects of yellowed medium, yellowed varnish, and lining adhesive impregnation of the very thinly-painted canvas, made the surface appear darker, more yellow-green and somewhat flatter than it would have originally. The mid-toned underpainting exacerbates the darkening which would have been less dramatic had a white priming been used. Varnish removal could not alleviate the darkening completely, and the painting has not therefore received conservation treatment for some decades.' ²⁶

Frame

Miss May Alexander, detail of frame

Flat Whistler frame, possibly the painting’s first frame (circa 1875-1888) designed by Whistler: gold leaf (oil and water gilding) on wood (oak on pine). ²⁷

This frame’s frieze (the broad flat between the reeded mouldings) shows evidence of an earlier gilded decorative scheme, which may also have had a painted pattern later removed by Whistler, or on his instructions. It may have been modified in 1898 for exhibition.

History

Provenance

• 1870/1875: commissioned by the sitter's father, William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916), London;
• 1879: acquired by Thomas Way (1837-1915) at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy;
• 1897/1898: returned to Whistler, possibly in 1897, and by him to Alexander by the following year;
• 1916: bequeathed by W. C. Alexander to the National Gallery, London, with life interest to the sitter, Agnes Mary ('May') Alexander (1862-1950);
• 1950: transferred to the Tate Gallery (later Tate Britain).

Whistler acknowledged the payment of £50 on account for the portrait from Alexander in February 1875. ²⁸ However, Alexander did not receive the painting until over twenty years later.

According to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), as quoted by Pennell, the canvas was one of several acquired at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy by his father. the London printer Thomas Way (1837-1915) and returned much later to Whistler:

'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. ... 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.' ²⁹

Presumably it was one of the portraits returned by 10 August 1897 after Whistler had quarrelled with the Ways, as part of their final settlement. ³⁰ Miss May Alexander y127 was exhibited in 1898, and a letter from Whistler to W. C. Alexander in 1899 suggests that it had only recently been restored to him (Whistler wrote 'Now that you have discovered a second picture in the portrait of your daughter Miss May'). ³¹

It was on loan to Tate Gallery from 1913, and was bequeathed by W. C. Alexander to the National Gallery, London, in 1916, with a life interest to the sitter, who died in 1950. The portrait was transferred to the Tate Gallery on her death (it was on loan to Leighton House, London, for a period from 1980).

Exhibitions

• 1898: 8th exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1898 (cat. no. 5) as 'Miss May Alexander'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 19) as 'Portrait of Agnes Mary, Miss Alexander'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 109) as 'Portrait of Agnes Mary, Miss Alexander'.

In 1892 Whistler appears to have thought the portrait suitable for exhibition in the World's Columbian Exposition, Department of Fine Arts, Chicago, 1893, but eventually it was not included. ³²

In 1898, he allowed it to be exhibited at the Grafton Gallery. The Athenaeum criticized it for being 'unnecessarily life size ... an experimental study ... [with] little modelling and little solidity.' ³³ However, another critic praised its delicacy and restraint, calling it 'a harmony in grey and gold', and comparing it with another exhibit, the portrait of Astruc by Edouard Manet (1832-1883), which by contrast 'seems almost brutal in its uncompromising realism'. It was, according to this critic, conspicuously displayed:

'Mr Whistler himself is here, in the first room, which, as someone said to us, the Hanging Committee seems to have devoted to "Art" … The "Miss May Alexander" hangs opposite a large mirror, so that practically the two centres are filled by Mr. Whistler. We have never seen the portrait before. We are not sure if it has ever been exhibited.' ³⁴

Likewise, another critic commented on the contrast between the work of Manet and Whistler:

'This picture of Miss May Alexander ... combines subtlety with seeming simplicity; its quiet tones, so skilfully handled, are a delight to study. No more striking contrast to it could be found than Edouard Manet's portrait of the poet Astruc ... In place of the subdued charm of Mr Whistler's picture we have here a frankness and directness almost cruel.' ³⁵

Whistler responded to one poor review (possibly the Westminster Gazette, which had, with modified rapture, described it as 'tentative and vague ... for all its charming delicacy and fascination of colour it strikes one as a second-rate Whistler') ³⁶ by drafting an indignant letter to the editor:

'I will then confide to you that the portrait of Miss May Alexander was commenced many years ago - interrupted in its beginning, by illness of the young lady - and never afterwards touched! -

The work is of the same date, if you will keep it a public secret, as the better known picture of the sister "Miss Alexander". -

At the express request of the Committee, I allowed the painting in the Graffton [sic] - , to be exhibited, without a word of explanation - that I might test, for my further reflection, the swift perception of the advanced cogniscienti [sic] since that earlier period, and note their instant pleasure in the technical direction and analysis of the painter's work in it's various stages -

It is reposeful to find no difference after all, between the independant [sic] ones who in those days wrote of the first portrait, as "unfinished".' ³⁷

In fact the portrait of May Alexander was mostly well received. The Echo, for instance, said: 'The work has the true Whistlerian cachet of restrained strength, spontaneity, and distinction.' ³⁸ Whistler used the tenor of such comments, which he described as 'comic grovelling' to try and persuade Alexander (probably vainly) to lend the portrait of Cicely Alexander to an exhibition in Venice. ³⁹

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. 127), plate 81, as 'Miss May Alexander'.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995, pp. 122-23, 127.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 8th exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1898 (cat. no. 5) as 'Miss May Alexander'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 19) as 'Portrait of Agnes Mary, Miss Alexander'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 109) as 'Portrait of Agnes Mary, Miss Alexander'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• 'The Society of Portrait Painters', Nottingham Guardian, Nottingham, 25 October 1898.
• 'A. H. P.', 'Portraits at the Grafton', Westminster Gazette, London, 26 October 1898.
• Anon., 'Grafton Gallery', Echo, London, 26 October 1898.
• 'The Grafton Galleries: Society of Portrait Painters', The Athenaeum, London, 29 October 1898.
• Anon., 'Art Notes', Illustrated London News, London, 29 October 1898.
• Anon., 'Portrait Painteers' Exhibition', The Queen, London, 19 November 1898, pp. 62-63.

Journals 1855-1905

• Stevenson, R. A. M., 'Some Autumn Exhibitions', The Art Journal, January 1899, pp. 26-29, at p. 28, repr. p. 27.

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 (cat. no. 190).
• Duret, Théodore, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son oeuvre, Paris, 1904, pp. 33-34, drawings repr. pp 37, 147.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 122-24, 127.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 173, 175; vol. 2, oil and drawings repr. f.p. 237.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 134.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 190).
• 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. 135-38.

Books, General

• Wahl, Kimberley, Dressed As in a Painting: Women and British Aestheticism in an Age of Reform, Durham NH, 2013, pp. 36-37, 39.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION

• Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: British School, 2nd edition, London, 1959, p. 104.

EXHIBITION

• Spencer, Robin, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1969 (cat. no. 22).

Journals 1906-Present

• Colby, Reginald, 'Whistler and “Miss Cissie” ', Quarterly Review, vol. 298, July 1960, pp. 309-20, pp. 310-11.

Websites

• Tate Britain, 2010, website at http://www.tate.org.uk.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. nos. 114-115).

Other

• Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.