The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Harmony in Red: Lamplight was probably started in 1884 and completed in 1886. ¹

Harmony in Red: Lamplight, The Hunterian

1884: According to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), he visited Whistler's new studio at 454 Fulham Road, by December 1884 (the lease was signed in October but alterations continued for months):

'Whilst we were at the studio he showed us ... a portrait of a lady done by gaslight. It was a curious idea of his to attempt such a thing, as it was, of course, before the days of incandescent gasburners or electric light, and he had had a sort of chandelier of argand burners made which gave a very yellow light, and consequently would falsify the appearance of the colours used when compared with their effect in daylight. I do not think he was very well satisfied with the result. Later on he made many lithographs by fire and candle light, and suggested their qualities perfectly, but these were in black and white only, which is quite another matter.' ²

1886, July: Malcolm Charles Salaman (1855-1940) described seeing, 'A superb portrait of Mrs. Godwin ... painted in artificial light,' in Whistler's studio. ³

1886, October/November: After the death of Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) on 6 October 1886, his widow continued to pose. Whistler wrote to her when she was staying with friends:

'Do take your courage in both hands and come over to the Studio at once - by at once I mean when you have had your comfortable breakfast - Do be so nice and good and kind - and we may run right through with it this morning! - We can darken the place and turn the gas ... Of course I forgot to say that the Lady Colin has just sent word that she cannot come - Do not desert me! William brings this so send word that you are coming - The place shall [be] nice and warm.' ⁴

Sittings overlapped with those by Janey Sevilla Campbell (Lady Archibald Campbell) (ca 1846-d.1923) for Arrangement in Black: La Dame au brodequin jaune - Portrait of Lady Archibald Campbell y242.

Sittings also overlapped with those by Gertrude Elizabeth Campbell (Lady Colin Campbell) (1857-1911) for Harmony in White and Ivory: Portrait of Lady Colin Campbell y354. Both were exhibited in the Winter Exhibition of the Society of British Artists in November 1886, by which time the portrait of Mrs Godwin was probably – though not certainly – complete. ⁵

Images

Subject

Titles

Known titles vary slightly in content, language, capitalisation and punctuation:

• 'Harmony in Red. Lamplight' (1886, Society of British Artists). ⁶
• 'Harmony in Red. Lamplight' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). ⁷
• 'Harmonie en rouge; éclairage de lampe – Portrait de Madame J. McNeill Whistler – (Harmony in Red. Lamplight. Portrait of Mrs J. McNeill Whistler.)' (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). ⁸
• 'Harmony in Red – Lamplight (Portrait of Mrs. Whistler)' (1936, University of Glasgow). ⁹
• 'Harmony in Red: Lamplight' (1980, YMSM) ¹⁰

The original title, 'Harmony in Red: Lamplight', is that generally accepted, with the punctuation changed (a colon replacing the full stop) for consistency with other titles.

Description

Harmony in Red: Lamplight, The Hunterian

A full-length portrait of a woman in vertical format. She wears an orangey-red hat and a cloak over a black dress, and stands, hands on hips, looking at the viewer. The background is a similar brownish red. She casts a shadow behind and to the right.

Sitter

Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896). Beatrice, second daughter of the sculptor John Birnie Philip (1824-1875) and Frances Philip (1824-1917), was born on 12 May 1857. She married the architect Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) on 4 January 1876, and had one son, Edward Godwin (1876-1957), who became a sculptor. She was an artist, and a collection of her paintings, prints and drawings is in the Hunterian, University of Glasgow.

According to Sutherland:

'No hint of impropriety tainted their relationship, but Lady Colin Campbell, still posing for her own portrait, suspected something was up. Trixie arrived so regularly to "carry him off" each afternoon that the Leopard, anticipating her arrival, teased Whistler by saying, "Isn't it time for the Little Widdie?" ' ¹¹

E. W. Godwin died on 6 October 1886. The widow married Whistler on 14 August 1888. She died of cancer on 10 May 1896.

Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), who was also posing to Whistler in the Fulham Road studio at that time, made an etching of Beatrice posing for this portrait. ¹²

Technique

Composition

Harmony in Red: Lamplight, The Hunterian

J. Bernard Partridge, Whistler as Harmony in Black, No. 10, caricature

A similarly assertive pose, of a woman standing with hand on hips, was seen first in a portrait of Maud Franklin (1857-1939), Arrangement in White and Black y185, and was re-used both in the portrait of Beatrice and another of Maud, Harmony in Black, No. 10 y357. The latter is seen in the caricature by J. Bernard Partridge (1861-1945) reproduced above. ¹³

Technique

It was painted on a coarse-textured, fairly open tabby weave canvas, later lined with a fine tightly-woven fabric. It was primed with a light grey ground. ¹⁴

Malcolm Charles Salaman (1855-1940) visited the studio when this portrait was in progress. He described it as follows:

'The plain white-washed walls, the unadorned wooden rafters, which partly form a loft for the stowing away of numerous canvases, panels, &c., the vast space unencumbered by furniture, and the large table-palette, all give the appearance of the working place ... Mr. Whistler ... in the black clothes of his ordinary wear, straight from the street or the garden, he stands at work at his easel. To those accustomed to studios the completeness of the arrangement of model, background, and surroundings exactly in accordance with the scheme of the picture that is in progress is striking, as striking indeed as the actual personality (always remarkable) of the talented artist. For his whole body seems instinct with energy and enthusiasm for his work, his face lit up with flashes of quick and strong thought, as that of a man who sees with his brains as well as with his eyes, and his brush-hand electric in sympathy with both.

... Mr. Whistler's palette, ... As I saw it the other day, the colours were systematically arranged, almost with the appearance of a picture. In the centre was white and on one side were the various reds leading up to black, while on the other side were the yellows leading up to blue. ...

And now a few words about some of the pictures which the master has almost ready for exhibition, ...

A superb portrait of Mrs. Godwin, wife of the well-known architect, will rank among Mr. Whistler's chefs-d'oeuvre. The lady stands in an ample red cloak over a black dress, against red draperies, and in her bonnet is a red plume. Her hands rest on her hips, and her attitude is singularly vivacious. The colour is simply wonderful, and is another positive proof of Mr. Whistler's pre-eminence as a colourist. This picture has been painted in artificial light, as has also another one of a lady seated in a graceful attitude, with one hand leaning over the back of a chair, while the other holds a fan. She wears a white evening dress, and is seen against a light background.' ¹⁵

In Whistler, Women and Fashion, MacDonald commented:

'Seen by gaslight, the cloak, with its long vertical armholes, appeared a tawny rust red. Her face, modeled with flickering soft brush strokes, looked at Whistler with amused tolerance. The dramatic cloak made the sitter's face and small, feathered bonnet seem delicate in proportion … [it] was never sold, perhaps because it was too personal; the record of their developing relationship.' ¹⁶

Robins comments in A Fragile Modernism. Whistler and his Impressionist Followers, that 'Probably the gaslight made Beatrice's cloak appear red, making her sexual and gender identity ambiguous' and she adds that red, 'one of the cheapest of the new synthetic colours', had become 'a suspect colour that quickly became identified with common, unformed "primitive" taste.' ¹⁷

Conservation History

It was treated by Harry Woolford in 1960, and may have been cleaned, retouched, and varnished at that time. It appears to have been extensively retouched in the background. There are extensive areas of craquelure and drying cracks, particularly on the left and at lower right. The varnish is thick, glossy, and slightly discoloured and cracked. The painting is however, structurally stable. ¹⁸

Frame

Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Boston 1904, photograph, GUL Whistler PH6/9

Harmony in Red: Lamplight, framed, The Hunterian

Harmony in Red: Lamplight, frame detail

Convex Whistler frame with no liner, dating from 1884/1886. ¹⁹ Size: 203.0 x 103.0 x 7.5 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

• 1886: Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1886 (cat. no. 227) as 'Harmony in Red. Lamplight'.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 47) as 'Harmony in Red. Lamplight'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 23) as 'Harmonie en rouge; éclairage de lampe – Portrait de Madame J. McNeill Whistler – (Harmony in Red. Lamplight. Portrait of Mrs J. McNeill Whistler)'.

Whistler's pictures at the SBA, pencil, National Gallery of Art, DC, 1943-3-8814

It was shown at the Society of British Artists in 1886, during the period of Whistler's presidency. In Whistler's pictures at the Society of British Artists m1127 Whistler drew the gallery to show how this picture was hung, as well as the surrounding décor. ²⁰

J. Bernard Partridge, At the Whistleries, Suffolk Street, drawing for Judy, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, MA

J. Bernard Partridge, At the Whistleries, Suffolk Street, from Judy, 8 December 1886

The painting was the subject of a caricature in Judy, 8 December 1886: it is at upper right of a page mainly devoted to Whistler's exhibits.

The critic of The Magazine of Art mixed praise and criticism:

'Another large canvas is the "Harmony in Red: Lamplight" in which the gradations of a delicate red, softened, and as our neighbours would put it, "assagi" by a deadened lamplight, are produced with great skill and enjoyment. But, again is it justifiable to employ for a technical exercise of this kind so vast a canvas? and are not the folds of the cloak worn by the female figure, which is the pretext for the harmony, needlessly ungraceful?' ²¹

More succinct, but not more flattering, The Daily News called it 'a technical triumph, although not exactly a very beautiful representation.' ²²

The Pall Mall Gazette described it even more briefly as 'a portrait of Mrs Godwin, by lurid lamplight.' ²³ The lighting described here as 'lurid' appeared only 'assagi' (subdued) to the Magazine of Art and the London Evening Standard. However, the art critic of the latter, reflecting middle-class prejudices, was critical of the model's pose, implying that it verged on vulgar:

'a tall woman's figure ... the hand on the hip, in an attitude that Mr. Whistler loves – an attitude that, before the days when women were muscular and their movements free, used, at all events among very proper people, to be thought not quite a fitting thing for a lady. ' ²⁴

These mildly dismissive reviews might have led Whistler to limit exhibitions of the portrait. In 1886 or 1887 Whistler listed 'Mrs. Godwin' among his 'Big pictures', probably as a potential exhibit in a proposed one-man exhibition at the RBA, which never materialised, because he was forced to resign as President of the Society. ²⁵

In 1887 Claude Oscar Monet (1840-1926) wrote to Théodore Duret (1838-1927) that the sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1817) admired a portrait, described as 'femme en rouge', which may have been this portrait, and Monet hoped it would be exhibited at the Galerie Georges Petit:

'[O]n m'a parlé de son portrait de femme en rouge. Rodin me dit que c'est superbe, et une feerie je lui en parle pour qu'il fasse son possible pour nous l'envoyer ... il ferait bien car là il sera [autrement?] bien vu qu'au Salon.'

Translated: 'I have been told of his portrait of a woman in red. Rodin tells me that it is superb, and a magical piece, I am writing to him to ask him to do his best to send it to us ..., it would be good for him as he would be more highly regarded there than at the Salon.' ²⁶

Eventually Whistler sent a substantial group of work – some fifty paintings, watercolours and pastels – to the Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture at the Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, in 1887, but not this portrait, nor did he send it to the Salon. Instead he sent a portrait of Maud Franklin, Harmony in Black, No. 10 y357, to the Exposition Internationale.

Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Boston 1904, photograph, GUL Whistler PH6/8, 2491

Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Boston 1904, photograph, GUL Whistler PH6/9

The photographs reproduced here show the portrait on exhibition in Boston in 1904.

Due to the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's gift to the University of Glasgow, the painting cannot now be lent to other venues.

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. 253) as 'Harmony in Red: Lamplight', plates 160, 425.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1127).

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1886 (cat. no. 227) as 'Harmony in Red. Lamplight'.
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 47) as 'Harmony in Red. Lamplight'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 23) as 'Harmonie en rouge; éclairage de lampe – Portrait de Madame J. McNeill Whistler – (Harmony in Red. Lamplight. Portrait of Mrs J. McNeill Whistler)'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', The Daily News, London, 30 November 1886.
• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', The Morning Post, London, 30 November 1886.
• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 30 November 1886.
• Anon., 'The Winter Exhibitions', London Evening Standard, London, 30 November 1886.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', Pall Mall Budget, 2 December 1886, p. 13.
• Salaman, Malcolm Charles, 'In Whistler's Studio', The Court and Society Review, vol. 3, 1 July 1886, pp. 588-90, at p. 589.
• Wedmore, Frederick, 'The Society of British Artists', The Academy, no. 761, 4 December 1886, p. 385.
• Anon., Fun, 8 December 1886, caricature repr. p. 239.
• Partridge, J. Bernard, 'At the Whistleries Suffolk Street', Judy; or the London Serio-Comic Journal, 8 December 1886, p. 267.
• 'G. B. S.', [Shaw, George Bernard], [Review of Society of British Artists], The World, London, 8 December 1886.
• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', The Athenaeum, 11 December 1886, p. 790.
• Anon., 'Picture Galleries', The Saturday Review, 11 December 1886, p. 782.
• Spielmann, M. H., 'Current Art', Magazine of Art, vol. 10, 1887, p. 111.
• 'A. E. G.' [Gallatin, A. E.], The Studio, vol. 31, May 1904, p. 361.
• Bénédite, Léonce, L'Oeuvre de James MacNeill Whistler, Paris, 1905, repr. pl. 20.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Anderson, Ronald, and Ann Koval, James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth, London, 1994, p. 294.
• Berman, Avis, First Impressions: James McNeill Whistler, New York, 1993, pp. 81-82.
• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907, p. 163 (cat. no. 47).
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 146, 187-88, repr. fig. 179.
• Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington, DC, and London, 1995, p. 40, repr. fig. 14.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, pp. 25-26, 63.
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner, A Fragile Modernism. Whistler and his Impressionist Followers, London and New Haven, 2007, pp. 72, 79-80, 84, 198 note 55.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 163 (cat. no. 88).
• Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, p. 252, repr. pl. 68.
• Spencer, Robin, Whistler, New York, 1990, p. 35.
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 219.
• Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, p. 108, repr. pl. 52.
• Taylor, Hilary, James McNeill Whistler, London, 1978, p. 113, repr. pl. 83.
• Walker, John, James McNeill Whistler, New York, 1987, pp. 105-06.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 79.
• Weintraub, Stanley, Whistler: A Biography, London, 1974, pp. 314-15, 323, 465, repr. pl. X.

Books, General

• Gruetzner, Anna, 'British Impressionism: The Magic and Poetry of Life Around them'; in Norma Broude (ed.), World Impressionism: The International Movement. 1860-1920, New York, 1990, p. 80.
• Ludovici, Anthony, 'The Whistlerian Dynasty at Suffolk Street. I-II', The Art Journal, nos. 817-18, July-August 1906, pp. 193-95, 237-39, at p. 239.
• McLaughlan, Robert, Gifted, Edinburgh, 1990, p. 107, repr.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Allan, Christopher J., A Guidebook to the Hunterian Art Gallery of the University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, 1991, pp. 46-47, repr.

EXHIBITION:

• Loan Exhibition of Works by James McNeill Whistler to aid the Professional Classes War Relief Council, Messrs Colnaghi, London, 1915 (cat. no. 15), as 'Harmony in Red: Lamplight / Portrait of Mrs J. McN. Whistler'.
• James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1936 (cat. no. 26).
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995, pp. 52, 175, 312, repr. fig. 30 (not exhibited).
• MacDonald, M. F., Beatrice Whistler. Artist and Designer, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, 1997, p. 43.
• Denker, Eric, In Pursuit of the Butterfly, Seattle, 1995, pp. 83-84 (not exhibited).
• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, pp. 93-94, repr. fig. 81 (not exhibited).

Journals 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Maud Franklin', in: Ruth Fine (ed.), James McNeill Whistler: A Reexamination, Studies in the History of Art, vol. 19, Washington, DC, 1987, pp. 13-26, at p. 24.
• Newton, Joy, La Chauve-Souris et le Papillon. Correspondance Montesquiou-Whistler, Glasgow, 1990, pp. 107, 109 note 3, 132-33 note 6.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• Anon., 'A Whistler Exhibition', The Times, London, 1 June 1915.
• Anon., 'Unexpected Whistlers', The Glasgow Herald, Glasgow, 1 June 1915.
• 'Art and Artists. A Whistler Exhibition', Observer, London, 6 June 1915.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41055.
• ArtUK 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. 172).

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.