The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch dates from the early 1880s, probably between 1882 and 1885. ¹

Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

Harmony in Fawn Colour and Purple: Portrait of Miss Milly Finch, The Hunterian

Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

It is dated by the dress and technique, and by comparison with other portraits of the sitter, Harmony in Fawn Colour and Purple: Portrait of Miss Milly Finch y238 and Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch y237.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's original title is not known with certainty:

• Possibly 'Millie Finch - Violet' (1886/1887, Whistler). ²
• 'Harmony in Blue and Violet (Miss Finch)' (1936, Glasgow University). ³
• 'Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch' (1980, YMSM). ⁴

It is not certain that the current title, 'Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch' was Whistler's title; however, the Hunterian website comments:

'Miss Milly Finch was a professional model who posed for Whistler during the 1880's. In painting this portrait, Whistler's main interest was not in capturing a true likeness of the sitter, but rather in concentrating on the themes of colour and form. Hence the title indicates that this piece should be viewed as an exercise in colour, rather than as a portrait of a specific person.' ⁵

Description

Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

A full-length portrait of a young woman standing facing the viewer, her body turned slightly to the right (her left). She has dark brown eyes and hair cut in a curly fringe. She is dressed in a pale turquoise pinafore over a blue and purple dress with three-quarter length sleeves trimmed with lace. A purplish-brown scarf covers her head and winds around her neck. She carries an open fan painted in cream, blue and pink in her left hand; her right hand is at her side, holding up her skirt and the hem of the pinafore. The background is black. The canvas is in vertical format.

Sitter

Millie Finch (fl. 1875-1885) has not been identified. She appears to have modelled at times when Maud Franklin (1857-1939) was ill or unable to sit for some reason. Whistler painted three oil portraits of Milly in the mid-1880s (Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, Harmony in Fawn Colour and Purple: Portrait of Miss Milly Finch y238, and Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch y237.

'Milly' could be short for Amelia or Millicent. A 'Millicent J. Finch', aged 32, born in Islington and listed in the 1901 census, would have been fifteen in 1884; she is a possible candidate, since Whistler showed a certain preference for young models.

Comments

It is possible that the portraits of Millie Finch – this and Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch y237 – were part of a series of 'blue girls' painted by Whistler between 1870 and 1900.

The first 'blue girl was Annabel Lee y079. This was followed by The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111 and The Blue Girl: Maud Franklin y112, with Elinor Leyland (1861-1952) and Maud Franklin (1857-1939), respectively, as models. Later related works include Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226 and Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch y237. The last 'blue girl' was probably Blue and Coral: The Little Blue Bonnet y500, starring Muriel Smith (1883-1923).

Technique

Technique

Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

It is on a comparatively fine canvas. It has a light coloured ground-layer, possibly light grey. In many parts of this painting, the weave is obvious, due to the very thin ground layer and the use of diluted paint. Whistler's frequent practise of rubbing or washing down the paint after a day's work is especially visible in the lower part of the canvas where the pigments barely stain the canvas. There are other signs of alterations. The figure was originally further to right. The black background was put in after the figure was painted.

Conservation History

The picture is in good stable condition, although it may have had some damage, and been repaired and retouched a long time ago, and the varnish, though thin, has yellowed. The canvas has been relined with a similar fine canvas, and this has emphasized irregularities in the weave.

Originally, Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch had a more purple hue, which is still present under the rebate of the frame where it was protected from light. This means that the original paint used by Whistler was not colour-fast, which implies it could have been a poor quality or cheaper product. Good and colour-fast red lakes were expensive. ⁶

By 1891 Whistler was critical of aniline dyes. He railed against the vivid colours of works in the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts:

'The Impressionist analines (I can't even spell it) seem to have been spilled over all the palettes - Even the man Dannat, ... has mauve and ultramarine running into the huge legs of his Spaniard.' ⁷

William Turner Dannat (1853-1929) exhibited Spaniard at 1st exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champs de Mars, Paris, 1891.

Frame

207.0 x 104.2 x 6.2 cm.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at the time of his death, and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) ;
• 1935: given by Miss R. Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Due to the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's gift to the University of Glasgow, it is not lendable.

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. 239), plate 169, as 'Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Spencer, Robin, Whistler: The Masterworks, Studio Editions, London, 1990, p. 122 (2nd edition, 1993, p. 120).
• Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, pp. 133-34.

Books, General

• McLaughlan, Robert, Gifted, Edinburgh, 1990, repr. cover.
• McManus, Mark and Glenn Chandler, Taggart's Glasgow, Glasgow 1989, p. 122 as 'Harmony in Blue and Violet – Miss Mollie Finch' [sic].

Catalogues 1906-Present

• James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1936 (cat no. 21) as 'Harmony in Blue and Violet (Miss Finch)'.
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 203, repr. fig. 134.7 (not exhibited).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41062.
• Art UK website at https://artuk.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 203).

Other

• None.