The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of George A. Lucas dates from 1886. ¹

Portrait of George A. Lucas, Walters Art Gallery

George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) recorded two sittings for his portrait on the 22 and 23 August 1886, at his country house at Boissise-la-Bertrand, near Paris. ²

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Portrait of George A. Lucas' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

Portrait of George A. Lucas, Walters Art Gallery

A small full-length portrait in vertical format. It shows a man with a pale grey/blonde beard wearing a dark grey or black suit, the jacket rather long. His hands are behind his back, his right leg advanced forward. He looks directly at the viewer. The floor and background are pale brown.

Sitter

George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) studied at West Point, like Whistler, but, like Whistler, failed to graduate; he became a railway engineer and family friend. He arrived in Paris in 1857 and lived there for the rest of his life as an agent for American collectors. He was joined in 1861 by the art collector and patron William Thompson Walters (1820-1894) of Baltimore who, like Lucas, had started his career as a civil engineer. Lucas gave this portrait to Walters' son Henry Walters (1841-1931) in 1908.

For years Lucas helped arrange the exhibition of Whistler's work in Paris. Lucas's diaries suggest that his friendship with Whistler was terminated soon after this portrait was painted.

A life-size three-quarter length portrait by Léon Bonnat (1833-1922), painted in 1885, and showing Lucas face-on, with almost photographic precision, is also in the Walters Art Gallery (37.759).

V. D. Brenner, George A. Lucas, 1899, bronze & silver, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 01.10

A medal by Victor David Brenner (1871-1924) containing a profile bust of Lucas, was given by the sitter to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1901.

Technique

Technique

Portrait of George A. Lucas, Walters Art Gallery

The minutely painted face, built up in dots and dashes with a tiny pointed brush, has the quality of a miniature, although the rest of the panel was painted with rough, rather untidy brushstrokes. There are numerous pentimenti, with several outlines visible around Lucas's shoulders, arms and legs, and his hat. Despite its small size, the figure has a commanding presence. The technique, particularly in the background, has the freshness of watercolour.

Conservation History

Portrait of George A. Lucas, Walters Art Gallery

Portrait of George A. Lucas, photograph, 1980

Unknown. Photographs show no particular change in its condition.

Frame

41.5 × 32.5 × 6 cm (16 5/16 × 12 13/16 × 2 3/8").

History

Provenance

• 1886: painted for George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909) in France;
• 1908: sent by Lucas to Henry Walters (1841-1931), Baltimore, 3 August 1908, and deposited on loan by Walters at the Baltimore Museum of Art;
• 1931: bequeathed to the Walters Art Gallery.

Lucas's diaries record that he sat for the portrait in 1886, and that he sent the portrait to Henry Walters on 3 August 1908. ⁴

Exhibitions

• It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

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. 355), plate 233, as 'Portrait of George A. Lucas'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 55-56.
• Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, p. 460.

Books, General

• Randall, Lillian (ed.), George A. Lucas: An American Art Agent in Paris, 1857-1909, Princeton, 1979, vol. 1, pp. 26-28, repr. fig. 118, photographs of sitter repr. figs. 3, 5; vol. 2, pp. 635, 962.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• King, E. S., and M. C. Ross, Catalogue of the American Works of Art, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, Baltimore, 1956, p. 12 (cat. no. 40).
• The George A. Lucas Collection, Baltimore, 1965, repr. p. 10.

Journals 1906-Present

• Pennell, Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell, 'The Pennell Whistleriana in the Library of Congress', The American Magazine of Art, 1921, vol. 12, no. 9, pp. 292-305.
• Mahey, John A. (ed.). 'The Letters of James McNeill Whistler to George A. Lucas', Art Bulletin, vol. 49, September 1967, pp. 247-57, at pp. 247-49, 256, n. 80.

Websites

• The Walters Art Museum website at art.thewalters.org.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 216).