The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert dates from between 1893 and 1894.

1893: The dress, with its slightly puffed half-length over-sleeves, suggests a date of about 1893. It is likely that it was painted in Paris. The Sickerts stayed with the Whistlers in Paris in October or November 1893. ¹ Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896) wrote to Arthur Haythorne Studd (1863-1919), 'Mrs Sickert went last Saturday. we are very dull without her! She will be so pleased to see you if you will call - Her address is no 1. The Vale - King's Road Chelsea.' ²

Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert, Fogg Art Museum

The Draped Figure, Seated, lithograph, The Hunterian, GLAHA 49574

The sofa that appears in the painting belonged to Whistler and also appeared in two lithographs dated 1893, The Draped Figure, Seated c072 and Nude Model, Reclining c073, both drawn in Paris.

1894: Whistler's biographers, the Pennells, date the portrait to 'this period.' ³ The completed painting was exhibited in the Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champ de Mars, Paris, 1894 (cat. no. 1185). In April Whistler's wife wrote somewhat cattily to her sister-in-law Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917) that the portrait was flattering:

'It is very pretty - Jimmie has given her beautiful soft brown hair - no grey - ! I think she liked it - You feel she must have been exactly like the picture when she was 20 - ! It is exactly like her - a funny little fat lady - a very graceful one rather Dutch in character.' ⁴

NOTE: Mrs Sickert had posed to Whistler for Arrangement in Violet and Pink: Mrs Walter Sickert y337 about 1885-1886, and formerly it was assumed that Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert dated from the same period. ⁵

Images

Subject

Titles

Radical variations on the title have been suggested:

• 'Vert et violet; portrait de Mme S...' (1894, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). ⁶
• 'Mrs. Bernard [sic] Sickert' (1894, Society of Portrait Painters). ⁷
• 'Mrs. Bernard [sic] Sickert' (1895, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts). ⁸
• 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs. E. Milicent Cobden' [sic] (1915, Panama-Pacific Exhibition). ⁹
• 'Portrait of Mrs. Cobden Sickert' (1934, Texas State Fair). ¹⁰
• 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert' (1980, YMSM). ¹¹
• 'Green and Violet: Mrs Walter Sickert' (2015, Fogg Art Museum). ¹²

It is not known why it was shown as 'Mrs Bernard Sickert', in 1894-1895. Bernhard Sickert (1862-1932) was the younger brother of Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) and was not married. The sitter was Walter's wife, Ellen 'Nellie' Millicent Ashburner Cobden, Mrs W. R. Sickert (1848-1914), whose maiden name was Cobden. 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert' is the preferred title.

Description

Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert, Fogg Art Museum

A portrait in vertical format, showing a woman seated on a sofa, facing the viewer. She wears a black dress with puffed half-length black over-sleeves over a silvery grey/blue blouse with a ruffle at the neck and long sleeves trimmed with braid. She has a pink rose or ribbon on her dress at upper right. The sofa is white, with a straight back and striped beige cover, the white-painted wooden frame decorated at the upper edge with a line and circle pattern.

Sitter

Ellen 'Nellie' Millicent Ashburner Cobden, Mrs W. R. Sickert (1848-1914). She had posed to Whistler for Arrangement in Violet and Pink: Mrs Walter Sickert y337 about 1885-1886.

Technique

Technique

Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert, Fogg Art Museum

It is painted thinly, on fine canvas, which is visible in places, such as around the chair-frame. Mrs Sickert's skirt was originally about an inch higher on the left, as was the cloak on the right. The seat of the sofa may have been higher, and there are signs of some alterations below the butterfly. Some areas have been rubbed down as part of the painting process, and her face and features are rather blurred and soft-edged.

Conservation History

Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert, photograph, 1980

The painting has been relined at some time.

Frame

Cove frame, with reeded edge and compo (composition) leaves, made in America, probably 1910/1920. ¹³

Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Boston 1904, photograph, GUL Whistler PH6/25

It appears in its frame in a photograph of the 1904 Boston Memorial Exhibition.

History

Provenance

• 1894/1896: possibly bought from the artist by Ellen 'Nellie' Millicent Ashburner Cobden, Mrs W. R. Sickert (1848-1914), London;
• 1914-1915: passed on her death to her estate.
• By 1919: Howard Young Galleries, New York.
• By 1924: Harold Somers (dates unknown), Brooklyn.
• 1924/1931: Knoedler Galleries, New York.
• By 1931: Milch Galleries, New York.
• By 1935: John Levy Galleries;
• 1941: sold by John Levy Galleries through Martin Birnbaum to Grenville Lindell Winthrop (1864-1943);
• 1943: Winthrop's bequest to the Fogg Art Museum.

It is not known if the sitter or her husband, Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), commissioned or bought this painting. It was exhibited several times from 1894 to 1895. It is possible that it was with David Croal Thomson (1855-1930) in 1896 or 1897, when Whistler asked the dealer to 'kindly send Mrs Sickerts portrait to the studio here this afternoon.' ¹⁴

After her divorce in 1899 the sitter used her maiden name of Cobden, and she owned the painting, although it is not known exactly when she acquired it. It was lent by her estate, after her death, to the International Exhibition of Fine Arts, Panama-Pacific Exposition, San Francisco in 1915 (cat. no. 275).

According to a notice in the American Art News it was with the Howard Young Galleries, New York, in 1919. ¹⁵ Pousette-Dart records it as owned by Harold Somers, Brooklyn, in 1924. ¹⁶ In 1931 it was, according to the Art News, with the Milch Gallery, New York dealers. ¹⁷ It could have been the Milch Gallery or another dealer, either Knoedler's or the John Levy Galleries, which lent it to an exhibition in Dallas in 1934 (cat. no. 174) as 'Portrait of Mrs. Cobden Sickert' for sale at $60,000 (all three were among the lenders listed). Between 1935 and 1940 it was definitely with the John Levy Galleries who lent it to an exhibition in San Francisco in 1935 (cat. no. 241) and in Detroit in 1940 (cat. no. 79). Finally, it was bought by G. L. Winthrop on 10 March 1941, and bequeathed by him to Harvard University.

Exhibitions

• 1894: Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champ de Mars, Paris, 1894 (cat. no. 1185) as 'Vert et violet; portrait de Mme S...'
• 1894: Fourth Exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, New Gallery, London, 1894 (cat. no. 85) as 'Mrs. Bernard Sickert'.
• 1895: Thirty-fourth Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Glasgow, 1895 (cat. no. 1l) as 'Mrs. Bernard Sickert'. [sic]
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 35).
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 26).

Francis Gerard Prange (b. ca 1843) assumed that Whistler was prepared to lend the portrait of Mrs Sickert to the New Gallery on extended loan, and wrote to the artist, 'Mrs Sickert, I suppose I may look upon as a fixture.' ¹⁸ By 15 October 1894 Whistler had arranged for tickets for the Private View at the New Gallery to go to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) and his father. ¹⁹ On 17 October the Times commented favourably on the Society of Portrait Painters exhibition:

'The Whistler, too, is new: a small full-length of "Mrs Sickert", seated (85) – a lady in a black and grey-blue dress; charming as a colour scheme, of course, but with a curious stiffness in the pose of the right arm.' ²⁰

Several papers mistakenly thought the portrait showed the wife of the unmarried Bernard Sickert! The Daily News commended – a bit grudgingly – 'Mr Whistler's charm of harmonious colour' in contrast to 'much surrounding crudity': 'The portrait of Mrs Bernard Sickert (No. 85) is not one of his best. But how restful is the colour. The eye is grateful for what it wants and scarcely expects.' ²¹ And the Morning Post admired 'A small picture of Mrs Bernard Sickert, by James McNeill Whistler, [which] cleverly conveys an impression of dim light.' ²² The Pall Mall Gazette agreed:

'Regarded purely as colour, or looked at for its soft, sober ensemble, for its repose in its frame, Mr Whistler's "Mrs Bernard Sickert" (85) seems beautiful and distinguished, but it lacks the effect of surprise and the active magic of a really notable Whistler.' ²³

In the following year the picture was on exhibition in Glasgow. The Dundee Courier called Whistler's portrait 'exquisite.' ²⁴ The Pall Mall Gazette again chipped in with praise, after commending Glasgow's superiority over Edinburgh:

'The Glasgow Exhibition is both larger and more important [than the Edinburgh exhibition]. There, standard and touchstone are provided by Whistler in his portrait of Mrs Bernard Sickert. The colour-scheme is an arrangement in ivory-white, grey, and black, woven together by that atmosphere which Whistler alone can paint.' ²⁵

The Scotsman (in Edinburgh) art critic commented on the Glasgow exhibition, including the 'portrait of Mrs Bernard Sickert', which, he wrote, 'is miles away from the weary conventional portraits.' ²⁶ On 16 February 1895, the Gentlewoman praised it fulsomely: 'the gem of the collection is the charming cabinet portrait of Mrs. Bernard [sic] Sickert, by Macneil Whistler. Unaffected and simple in pose and treatment, it bears the indelible stamp of genius'.

On 17 May 1895 Prange asked whether he should return the portrait to 110 rue du Bac or 86 rue Notre Dame des Champs in Paris. ²⁷

Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Boston 1904, photograph, GUL Whistler PH6/25

It was shown in the Whistler memorial exhibitions in Boston and Paris in 1904 and 1905.

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. 338), plate 230, as 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champ de Mars, Paris, 1894 (cat. no. 1185) as 'Vert et violet; portrait de Mme S...'
• Fourth Exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, New Gallery, London, 1894 (cat. no. 85) as 'Mrs. Bernard Sickert'.
• Thirty-fourth Exhibition of Works of Modern Artists, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts, Glasgow, 1895 (cat. no. 11) as 'Mrs. Bernard Sickert'. [sic]
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 35).
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 26).

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The New Gallery', Daily News, London, 17 October 1894.
• 'The Society of Portrait Painters', The Times, London, 17 October 1894, p. 8.
• Anon., 'The Society of Portrait Painters', The Morning Post, London, 18 October 1894, p. 5.
• Anon., 'The Society of Portrait Painters', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 24 October 1894.
• Anon., 'Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts', The Dundee Courier and Argus, Dundee, 2 February 1895, p. 3.
• Anon., 'The Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts Exhibition', The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 2 February 1895, p. 10.
• Anon., 'Exhibition of Paintings at the Art institute', Gentlewoman, London, 16 February 1895, p. 40.
• Anon., 'Scotch Art Exhibitions', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 1 March 1895.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907 (cat. no. 35).
• Duret, Théodore, trans. by Frank Rutter, Whistler, English edition, London, 1917, p. 78. repr. p. 106.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, p. 158.
• Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 390, 457, 528.
• Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel, (ed.), James McNeill Whistler,(with introduction by Joseph & Elizabeth Robins Pennell), New York, 1924, repr. pl. 52.
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, p. 195.
• Sutton, Denys, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolours, London, 1966, repr. plate 97.
• Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, repr. plate 88, p. 283.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, cat. no. 110.
• Weintraub, Stanley, Whistler: A Biography, London, 1974, p. 279.

Books, General

• Browse, Lillian, Sickert, London, 1960, pp. 14-15, 23.
• Baron, Wendy and Richard Shone, Sickert: Paintings, New Haven and London, 1992, p. 62, fig. 73.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt (eds), American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard University Art Museums/Yale University Press, Cambridge, MA, and New Haven, CT, 2008, pp. 430-31 (cat. no. 458), repr. p. 431.

EXHIBITION:

• Exhibition at S. & G. Gump Art Galleries, San Francisco, 1913 (cat. no. 275) as 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs. E. Milicent Cobden'.
• The Forty-Eighth Annual Exhibition of Paintings, Water Colors, Sculpture, Graphic Arts, State Fair of Texas Art Gallery, Dallas, 1934 (cat. no. 174) as 'Portrait of Mrs. Cobden Sickert', repr. p. 7.
• Seven Centuries of Painting, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1939 (cat. no. 241), repr.
• [Exhibition], Detroit, 1940 (cat. no. 79).
• The American Spirit in Portraiture, 1675-1900, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 1951.
• Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 54).
• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, p. 93, repr. fig. 82 (as part of 1904 installation).
• For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 2004.

Journals 1906-Present

• Art and Progress, August 1915, repr. frontispiece.
• American Art News, 27 December 1919, repr. p. 1.
• Art Digest, 1 October 1937, repr. p. 7
• Art News Annual, 16 May 1931, repr. p. 69.
• 'Names Withheld', Art News, February 1950, p. 17.
• Dempsey, Andrew, 'Whistler and Sickert: A Friendship and its End', Apollo, vol. 83, January 1966, pp. 30-37, at pp. 32-33.
• Frankfurter, Alfred M., 'Thirty-Five Portraits from American Collections', Art News Annual , 16 May 1931, pp. 3-4, repr. p. 69.
• Sickert, Walter Richard, ‘Where Paul and I differ’, Art News, no. 14, 10 February 1910, p. 113.
• Thornton, Alfred, 'Walter Richard Sickert', Artwork: A Quarterly, London, England, Spring 1930, vol. 6, no. 21, pp. 1-18, at p. 1.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• Baker, Kenneth, "What Matters Most in a Painting", The Christian Science Monitor, 9 September 1983, repr. p. 24.

Websites

• Harvard Museums website at www.harvardartmuseums.org/art/230026.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library.

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.