The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading dates from between 1879 and 1887.

Study: Seated Figure, Freer Gallery of Art

1878/1879: The costume and composition appear to be related to a chalk drawing, Study: Seated Figure m0694, dated about 1878, and the lithograph Reading c017, drawn in 1879 but revised and published in 1887.

1887: Stylistically Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading resembles paintings from the early 1880s, and it was probably first exhibited in 1887, as 'Note in Black' or 'Note in black: Reading'. ¹ It is possible that it was worked on at that time, but its condition makes an assessment of the technique tricky.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• Possibly 'Note in Black' or 'Note in black: Reading' (1887, Royal Society of British Artists). ²
• 'the little Reading Girl - (Arrangement in Black)' (1892, Whistler). ³
• 'Girl in Black' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). ⁴
• 'Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading' (1980, YMSM). ⁵

The 1980 title 'Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading' is that generally accepted, both because earlier titles are variable, and in order to conform with other titles.

Description

Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading, Metropolitan Museum of Art

A figure study, in vertical format. A young woman, dressed entirely in black, sits in profile to left, holding a book close to her face to read. The background is also very dark and shadowy.

Sitter

Unidentified.

Study: Seated Figure, Freer Gallery of Art

Reading, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Rosenwald Collection

The costume and composition are closely related to a portrait in chalk of Maud Franklin (1857-1939), Study: Seated Figure m0694, and a lithograph, Reading c017. However, the sitter of this painting does not look very like Maud.

Technique

Composition

Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study: Seated Figure, Freer Gallery of Art

Reading, lithograph, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, Rosenwald Collection

The costume and composition are closely related to a portrait in chalk of Maud Franklin (1857-1939), Study: Seated Figure m0694, and two lithographs, probably done about 1879, one of them being Reading c017.

Technique

Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading, Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is thinly painted, with slightly spiky brushwork, rather more jerky than Whistler's usual work, though perfectly consistent over the panel. It is possible that it has slightly darkened.

The Metropolitan Museum catalogue describes it as 'Constructed of quickly applied dabs of paint, the woman can be discerned only from changes in color tones and variations of brushstroke. In many areas the distinction between figure and background is obscure.' ⁶

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading, Metropolitan Museum of Art

After the painting was bought by J. C. Bancroft it was framed by Frederick Henry Grau (1859-1892), Whistler's London frame-maker, before being sent to Boston on 27 June 1891. ⁷ The frame bears Grau's signature on the verso. ⁸

History

Provenance

• 1891: bought from the artist on 8 June, by the Boston stockbroker John Chandler Bancroft (1835-1901), with one watercolour, for £129.16.6;
• 1901: bequeathed to Bancroft's widow, Harriet Burfort James Bancroft (Mrs J. C. Bancroft) (1846-1906), who died in London, UK, in 1906.
• Before 1937: owned by Francis Patrick Garvan (1875-1937), New York;
• 1937: Estate of F. P. Garvan;
• 1944: acquired from the Estate of F. P. Garvan by the Macbeth Galleries, New York;
• 1944: sold by Macbeth to the Babcock Galleries, New York;
• 1944: bought by Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876-1967), New York, but deposited with the Babcock Galleries until 1946;
• 1967: bequeathed to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Bancroft had met Whistler many years earlier, around 1861. When he and his family came to London in 1891 he re-introduced himself:

'I want to recall myself to your memory after thirty years & if you are in London to have shortly the satisfaction of knowing more of your latterday work - The little I have seen makes me wish to see more: & if there is not a disproportion between one of your masterpieces & my means, which unfortunately have a truly republican instability, I hope to carry one back them with me.' ⁹

They visited the Whistlers in June, apparently found the prices a little high, but then reconsidered. Bancroft wrote to Whistler next day, 8 June 1891:

'Night brings good counsel sometimes & waking early this morning, I made up my mind that I could risk discounting the future a little & that I would write you, as I am now doing in consequence, that I should be pleased to take now or at any time, the little water-color & I think also the figure (black on black) though my wife does not feel as sure of that as I do.' ¹⁰

They also tempted Whistler by asking if he would paint their daughter. Whistler agreed (though that did not come to pass) and added: 'The water colour, & the little Reading Girl - (Arrangement in Black) if Mrs Bancroft wishes, I can send round to you.' ¹¹ The sale made, the picture was framed by F. H. Grau. Bancroft sent a cheque with a note to Whistler's assistant William Bell (fl. 1886-1892):

'Your note of June 26 is just received & with many thanks for your attention to the framing & packing[.] I enclose a check on the So. Kensington branch of the London & Westminster Bank Limited for the amount due in total: £129. 16. 6 -

I note that the case has been delivered to Messrs Brown Shipley & co - Have the kindness to send me a line to explain whether it remains with them subject to my order or whether they will forward it without further notice.' ¹²

Bancroft's widow, Harriet Burfort James Bancroft, died in London in 1906. There are some gaps in the known provenance thereafter. It is possible that the painting passed to the Bancroft's son, Wilder Dwight Bancroft (1867-1953), a professor in Ithaca, NY, or daughter Hester (a small label on the back reads 'Hester B.'). Another label reads '37433' and some other notes on the back read '5624' and '4/10/42G'.

The US censuses record that the Irish born lawyer and collector Francis Patrick Garvan (1875-1937) with his large family, including a son Francis Patrick J. Garvan Jr (1912-1972), was living in Washington, DC, in 1920 and in Nassau County, NY, in 1930, but again, it is not known where and when he bought this painting. A photograph of the painting, taken at the Freer Gallery of Art in the 1930s, is labelled 'Study of a woman in black. Purchased by Francis Garvan & will go eventually to Yale University.' ¹³ But although it was lent by Adelaide Milton de Groot to Yale University Art Gallery in 1946, it did not enter the University collection, but was later bequeathed by Miss de Groot to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ¹⁴

Exhibitions

• 1887: 64th Annual Exhibition, Royal Society of British Artists, London, 1887 (cat. no. 25), 'Note in Black' or (cat. no. 155) 'Note in black: Reading'.
• 1892: Exhibition of Oil Paintings, St Botolph Club, Boston, 1891-1892 (cat. 35), no title given.
• 1897: Possibly Nineteenth Exhibition, Society of American Artists, New York, 1897 (cat. no. 107) as ‘Girl Reading’.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 17) as 'Girl in Black'.

Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Arrangement in Black: Reading, Private collection

Two pictures exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists had similar titles, a 'Note in Black' and 'Note in black: Reading', the latter priced at £105. ¹⁵ One may well have been this painting and the other, Arrangement in Black: Reading y224. The Sunday Times described them as 'Two clever studies of girls in reading attitudes, in black dresses against black backgrounds.' ¹⁶

After it was purchased by J. C. Bancroft in 1891, it was exhibited at the St Botolph Club in Boston, as Bancroft reported to Whistler in February 1892:

'Your "Arrangement in Black" & the ... water-color have been shown to the good people of Boston at the St Botolph Club, and my wife's letters say that the said good people opened their eyes very wide in consequence; and of my personal knowledge there are at least half a dozen in Boston perhaps a dozen who know a good thing when they see it.' ¹⁷

After Whistler's death it was lent by Mrs Bancroft to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in Boston 1904 (cat. no. 17) as 'Girl in Black'.

Years later, in 1946, it was lent by the then owner, Miss de Groot, to Yale University Art Gallery, and later, in 1952, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, to which she bequeathed the painting.

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. 223), plate 140, as 'Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 64th Annual Exhibition, Royal Society of British Artists, London, 1887 (cat. no. 25) 'Note in Black' or (cat. no. 155) 'Note in black: Reading'.
• Catalogue of Exhibition of Oil Paintings, 1891-1892, St Botolph Club, Boston, 1891 (cat. 35), no title given.
• Possibly Nineteenth Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Artists, New York, 1897 (cat. no. 107) as ‘Girl Reading’.
• Copley Society (ed.), Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels & Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 17) as 'Girl in Black'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., Sunday Times, London, 15 April 1887.
• Anon., 'The Pictures of the Season', Liverpool Mercury, Liverpool, 30 June 1887, p. 5.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• Spassky, Natalie, with Linda Bantel, Doreen Bolger Burke, Meg Perlman, and Amy L. Walsh, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 2, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845, pp. 394-96.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• On loan to Yale Museum of Fine Arts, 1946-1952.
• On loan to Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1952-1967.
• Drawings, Watercolors, Prints and Paintings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1972 (no catalogue).
• Drawings, Watercolors, Prints and Paintings by James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Albany Institute of History and Art, 1974 (no catalogue).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York website at https://metmuseum.org.
• Lithograph, Reading, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC website at https://www.nga.gov.
• Archives Directory for the History of Collecting in America website at https://research.frick.org/directory.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. nos. 182-3).

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.