The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 406
A Portrait [by B. Whistler]
![A Portrait [by B. Whistler]](../../images/noimage.jpg)
Date
A Portrait was painted by Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896), not James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) as suggested in 1980. 1 It may date from 1893, and was certainly exhibited in that year. 2
Images
A Portrait, Whereabouts unknown
Subject
Titles
Only one title has been suggested:
- 'A Portrait' (1893, Society of Portrait Painters). 3
- 'A Portrait' (1980, YMSM). 4
Description
A portrait.
Comments
A Portrait was by Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896), not James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903).
Technique
Technique
Unknown. It was described as a 'small and charming study'. 5
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
Unknown.
Exhibitions
- 1893: 3rd exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1893 (cat. no. 152) as 'A Portrait'.
Works by Whistler and his wife Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896) were exhibited in the show, and were described in The Spectator, 3 June 1893, p. 17, as follows:
'Whistler is almost put out. Sarasate suffers, while a particularly Jimmy presentment of the Prince of Wales, his next neighbour, seems made for the place. Besides this Sarasate, Whistler sends a picture of a studio interior. He himself is represented painting; two women's figures are indicated in the corner; above are shelves of blue china and a mirror. The whole is a lovely piece of suggestion and colour. A small and charming study has been not unnaturally catalogued as a third Whistler, but is restored, by a note on the frame, to "R. Birnie." '
It is absolutely certain that the painting was indeed by Beatrice Whistler, who exhibited as 'Rix Birnie', the pseudonym based on her nick name 'Trix' or 'Trixie', and her maiden name (Birnie Philip). Whistler had asked Stephen Richards (1844-1900) to clean the portraits for the SPP including Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Señor Pablo de Sarasate y315, The Artist in his Studio (Whistler in his Studio) y063, a portrait of Whistler as a child by William Boxall (1800-1879) (now in the Hunterian) and a 'Small panel by Mrs Whistler.' 6 The 'small panel' has not been identified. Most of her very Whistlerian portraits were given to the University of Glasgow by her younger sister, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). 7
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. 406) as 'A Portrait' by J. McN. Whistler.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- 3rd exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1893 (cat. no. 152) as 'A Portrait'.
Journals 1855-1905
- The Spectator, London, 3 June 1893, p. 17.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- None.
Books, General
- None.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- None.
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
- None.
Unpublished
- None.
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 406).
2: 3rd exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1893 (cat. no. 152).
3: 3rd exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1893 (cat. no. 152).
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 406).
5: The Spectator, London, 3 June 1893, p. 17.
6: 4 May 1893, GUW #10718.
7: For instance, Girl at a tea table, GLAHA 46414; Woman in a straw hat reading a letter, GLAHA 46423; and Frances Septima Birnie Philip, GLAHA 46425. See, for instance, The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.