The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study for the Head of Carlyle dates from between 1872 and 1873. ¹

Study for the Head of Carlyle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

It is a study for Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137, which is so dated.

Images

Subject

Titles

• 'Study for the Head of Carlyle' (1980, YMSM). ²
• 'Thomas Carlyle (Primary Title) Study for "Arrangement in Frey & Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle", 1872-73 (Primary Title)' (2018, Virginia Museum of the Fine Arts). ³

'Study for the Head of Carlyle' is the preferred title.

Description

Study for the Head of Carlyle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

This is a study for Whistler's portrait of Thomas Carlyle (Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137), showing almost exactly the same pose of the head and upper body.

Sitter

J. M. Cameron, Thomas Carlyle, 1867, albumen print, National Galleries of Scotland

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), historian and philosopher. Among the many representations of Carlyle is a dramatic print by Julia Margaret Cameron, dated 1867, that shows him in profile (National Galleries of Scotland PGP 373.1).

Technique

Composition

Study for the Head of Carlyle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle, Glasgow Museums

It is a study of the head of Thomas Carlyle, similar to his pose in Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137.

Technique

Study for the Head of Carlyle, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

Technically it resembles Whistler's sketch for the head of Cicely Alexander (Study for the Head of Miss Cicely H. Alexander y128) very closely indeed. The two were being painted at the same time. It is painted boldly, with clearly distinct brushstrokes, mostly applied quite thinly, with areas of canvas showing.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

78.8 x 63.8 cm (31 1/16 x 25 2/16").

History

Provenance

• 1906: bought by Burton Mansfield (1856-1932), New Haven, CT, from The Fine Art Society, London;
• 1907-1908: lent to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston;
• 1927: sold to the Babcock Galleries, New York;
• 1930: sold to Dr Charles Wharton Stork (1882-1971), Haverford, PA;
• 1932: presented to Haverstock College;
• 1972: on the art market in the USA.
• 1977: bought from Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

Exhibitions

No exhibitions have been identified.

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. 136) plate 102, as 'Study for the Head of Carlyle'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Joseph, Etchers and Etching: Chapters in the History of the Art Together with Technical Explanations of Modern Artistic Methods, London, 1920, p. 121.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, repr. f. p. 128.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Young, Andrew McLaren, James McNeill Whistler: An Exhibition of Paintings and Other Works, Organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the English-Speaking Union of the United States, London and New York, 1960 (cat. no. 30).
• Sellin, David, American Art in the Making: Preparatory Studies for Masterpieces of American Painting 1800-1900, Washington, DC, 1976, pp. 62-65.

Journals 1906-Present

• Advertisement section, The Connoisseur, vol. 195, June 1977.
• Carlyle Studies Annual, No. 25, 2009, repr. frontispiece.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Virginia Museum of Fine Arts website at https://www.vmfa.museum.
• Smithsonian Institution website at http://collections.si.edu.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.