The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 251
Portrait of Mrs Waldo Story
Date
Portrait of Mrs Waldo Story probably dates from between 1883 and 1884. 1
1883: Whistler wrote to the American sculptor Thomas Waldo Story (1855-1915), 'Say all that is charming for me to Mrs. Waldo Story - and let me paint her portrait for you to put in your Palazzo.' 2 They were in close contact that spring in London. In May 1883 Whistler wrote 'Waldo and his wife are of course simply charming - You will see them in London soon -' and invited them to all his Sunday breakfasts in June, as well as in July. 3
1884: The artist Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942) (1905) listed among works seen in Whistler's Tite Street Studio in 1884, 'Mrs Waldo Story, en rouge', but he was inclined to be imprecise in dating and descriptions, and writing in 1919 he grouped it with 'certains portraits de la série des "arrangement en noir et en brun", comme ... Mrs Waldo Story.' 4
Images
Portrait of Mrs Waldo Story, Whereabouts unknown
Subject
Titles
One title is suggested:
- 'Portrait of Mrs Waldo Story' (1980, YMSM). 5
Description
Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942) originally described it as 'Mrs Waldo Story, en rouge', but in 1919 he grouped it with 'certains portraits de la série des "arrangement en noir et en brun", comme ... Mrs Waldo Story.' 6
Sitter
Ada Maud Broadwood (Mrs Waldo Story) (1856-1932).
Ada M. Broadwood, daughter of an Englishman, T. Capel Broadwood, and granddaughter of Alfred Hennin, the New Orleans jurist, married a close friend of Whistler, the American sculptor, Thomas Waldo Story (1855-1915) in Rome in 1883. In that year, John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) painted Mrs Waldo Story (private collection), a fine three-quarter-length portrait of her in a black evening dress. 7
Technique
Technique
Unknown.
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
Unknown.
Exhibitions
None known.
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. 251) as 'Portrait of Mrs Waldo Story'.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- None.
Journals 1855-1905
- Blanche, Jacques-Émile, 'James McNeill Whistler', Renaissance Latine, vol. 4, no. 6, 15 June 1905, pp. 353-78, at p. 358.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- None.
Books, General
- Blanche, Jacques-Émile, Propos de peintre, de David à Degas, Paris, 1919, p. 60.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- None.
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
- None.
Unpublished
- None.
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 251).
2: [January/February 1883], GUW #05605.
3: Whistler to J. E. C. Bodley, [2/16 May 1883], GUW #00493; Whistler to W. and A. Story, [3 June 1883], GUW #11142; A. S. Cole, 8 July 1883, diary copy, GUW #13132.
4: Blanche 1905 [more] at p. 358; Blanche 1919 [more], p. 60.
5: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 250).
6: Blanche 1905 [more] at p. 358; Blanche 1919 [more], p. 60.
7: Ormond, Richard and Elaine Kilmurray, John Singer Sargent: complete paintings, vol. 1, The early portraits, New Haven, 1998 (cat. no. 104).