The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Girl in Red may date from 1884. ¹

The technique and butterfly suggest a date in the mid-1880s.

It may have been the painting mentioned in The Whitehall Review on 29 June 1884, when the paper reported that Whistler was at work on the portrait of 'a little patrician child, in red, standing in grave, infantile pride against a deep red curtain.' ² It is not clear from this description if this referred to a full or half-length portrait, and therefore the painting described by The Whitehall Review has been caalogued separately, as Portrait of a Girl y311.

The Girl in Red, Private collection

Study in Brown, Muskegon Museum of Art

In any case, it is difficult to be sure of the date, and it may date from some time later. There are similarities to later portraits of young girls, such as Study in Brown y313, which date from the 1890s.

Images

Subject

Titles

The recorded titles are as follows:

• 'A Girl' (1904, Royal Hibernian Academy). ³
• 'The Girl in Red' (1905, ISSPG). ⁴
• 'The Girl in Red' (1980, YMSM). ⁵

'The Girl in Red' is the generally accepted title.

Description

The Girl in Red, private collection

A half-length portrait of a girl with long hair, in vertical format. She wears a red dress and is seen against a red background.

Sitter

The Girl in Red, photograph, Knoedler's

A photograph of the painting, formerly in Knoedler's Archive, New York, was inscribed 'Rose' but it is not known if that was the name of the model.

Technique

Technique

The Girl in Red, private collection

Study in Brown, Muskegon Museum of Art

Thinly painted in rich colours. The Girl in Red y312 is similar in technique to Study in Brown y313.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• 1899: with Charles Hessele (fl. 1892-1914), Paris art dealer;
• 1899/1900: sold by Hessele to Gaston Bernheim-Jeune (1870-1953), art dealer;
• 1900: sold by him to Alexander Reid (1854-1928), Glasgow art dealer;
• 1900: James Staats Forbes (1823-1904), London;
• 1904: with Forbes estate;
• 1904: with Obach, London art dealers;
• 1904: owned by Alexander Arnold Hannay (1858-1927).
• 1916: bought from W. B. Paterson, London dealer, by Knoedler's, New York dealers;
• 1916: sold by them to Stephen Carlton Clark (1882-1960), New York;
• 1922: with Agnew, London dealers;
• 1923: with John Levy Galleries and Milch Galleries, New York;
• 1926: bought from Stephen Carlton Clark by Knoedler's;
• 1926: sold by Knoedler's to Grand Central Galleries, New York;
• 1926: bought from them by William Lockhart Clayton (1880-1966), Texas;
• 1926: given by Mr and Mrs Clayton to their daughter, Ellen Burdine Clayton Garwood (Mrs St John Garwood) (1903-1993);
• 1993: bequeathed to the present owner.

In 1899 Whistler sold several canvases to Charles Hessele or Hessèle, a print dealer in Paris, but did not specify this painting. ⁶

According to Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) of Wunderlich, New York dealers, Whistler was hard up when he sold several 'unfinished' canvases to Hessele, who in his turn sold them to Bernheim, and later, when one was sold by 'McLean' to 'Forbes' in London (probably James Staats Forbes), Whistler 'noticed how incomplete they were' and tried to retrieve them. ⁷

In April 1900 John James Cowan (1846-1936) saw a painting of a girl with long red hair and a crimson dress and/or background, in the possession of Alexander Reid. ⁸ Whistler asserted that this portrait, 'the head with the two crimsons', had been stolen from him. ⁹ In October 1901 Whistler told Cowan that 'The girl in red with the red background' had been found in London. ¹⁰ He asked Cowan to challenge Reid about his purchases:

'Most of these defective & purloined pictures have passed through Reid's hands - though of course he may be (?) quite square himself! However at this moment while he thinks that one only of the questionable works has been stopped, he will find himself called to account on all sides! The red head he will in a day or two hear of!' ¹¹

Whistler 'impounded' the picture, which had been bought byJames Staats Forbes, but, according to Kennedy, since the pictures had not actually been stolen, Bernheim threatened to sue Whistler for slander and the artist had to give up his attempt to retrieve his pictures. ¹²

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) noted that he had seen a 'Girls Head - Red, Upright' from Forbes's collection in 1904, but decided not to leave an offer with Obach, the London art dealers. ¹³ After Forbes's death in August 1904, the painting was lent by his executors to the exhibition of Pictures presented to the City of Dublin to form the Nucleus of a Gallery of Modern Art, also pictures lent by the executors of the late James Staats Forbes and others, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1904 (cat. no. 81) and to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in London in 1905 (cat. no. 28).

The Girl in Red, photograph, Knoedler's, 1926

There is an apparent gap in the provenance at this point, until the story is taken up by Knoedler's archives. ¹⁴ The portrait was bought from W. B. Paterson by Knoedler's in June 1916 and sold by them to S. C. Clark in October of the same year. It was with Agnew's in 1922, and with John Levy Galleries and Milch Galleries, in 1923, but was probably still owned by S. C. Clark and was finally bought back from Clark in January 1926 by Knoedler's, who sold it to the Grand Central Galleries, six months later. It was immediately sold to W. L. Clayton, and given by Mr and Mrs Clayton to their daughter Ellen (later Mrs St John Garwood), as a graduation present. She lent it to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Texas, in 1946. ¹⁵

Exhibitions

• 1904: Pictures presented to the City of Dublin to form the Nucleus of a Gallery of Modern Art, also pictures lent by the executors of the late James Staats Forbes and others, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1904 (cat. no. 81) as 'The Girl in Red.'
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 28) as 'The Girl in Red'.

It is not recorded as exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

In 1905 the Pall Mall Gazette praised it as among the 'strongest, and the one having the most character' of the small portraits. ¹⁶

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. 312), plate 198, as 'The Girl in Red'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Pictures presented to the City of Dublin to form the Nucleus of a Gallery of Modern Art, also pictures lent by the executors of the late James Staats Forbes and others, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin, 1904 (cat. no. 81) as 'The Girl in Red.'
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 28) as 'The Girl in Red'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., ['A. M.'], 'The Whistler Exhibition', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 22 February 1905, p. 4.

Journals 1855-1905

• The Whitehall Review, 29 June 1884.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• On loan to Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in 1946.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 283).

Other

• None.