The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of Mrs Walter Cave dates from some time between December 1894 and March 1895. ¹

This could be the picture that William Rothenstein (1872-1945) remembered seeing Whistler paint in the studio of the artist Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), at 13 Robert Street, London. This would have been probably between December 1894 and March 1895. According to Rothenstein, in Sickert's studio 'one day, seeing a half-finished canvas on the easel he [Whistler] began working on it, and getting interested, he finished the canvas, carried it off, and I believe, sold it as a work of his own.' ² Sickert recorded that 'Whistler took up and nearly finished a portrait of Mrs Walter Cave which I had planned and begun' and gave it to him (Sickert), 'in a then fit of good humour', with two other canvases (Head of Mrs Beaumont y430 and possibly Head of a Girl y432). ³ According to Sickert, it was subsequently lost, or, in Rothenstein's opinion, completed and sold by Whistler 'as a work of his own.' ⁴

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'portrait of Mrs Walter Cave' (1911, W. R. Sickert). ⁵
• 'Portrait of Mrs Walter Cave' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

Description

The portrait of a woman, possibly a half-length of the sitter seated in profile. Her dress, if fashionable, would have had big, "leg o'mutton" sleeves.

Sickert painted 'another [portrait] of the same arrangement' as this portrait, and showed it at the exhibition of the New English Art Club in April 1895 (cat. no. 79). The Glasgow Herald described Sickert's portrait as ‘a slim, alert figure in a black and velvet dress with big sleeves, and a fair-haired curly head, with face in outline against a soft background of old rose colour’, while the Globe added that it was a ‘half-length' of the sitter 'seated in a spontaneous attitude.’ ⁷

Sitter

The sitter may have been Jessica Cave (d. 1934), née Cochrane, who, on 21 June 1892, married the architect Walter Frederick Cave (1863-1939), the son of Sir Charles Daniel Cave of Sidmouth in Devon. ⁸ Walter Cave was articled to Sir A. W. Blomfield, ARA, studied at the R.A., and designed a wide variety of buildings including the Aeolian Hall in New Bond Street. They had one son, Richard Cave. Works by Walter and Jessica Cave were exhibited at the 1899 Arts & Crafts Exhibition. ⁹ They certainly knew Sickert but there is no record of this portrait in the family.

Technique

Technique

Unknown.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• 1894/1895: possibly given by the artist to Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942).

Sickert recorded that Whistler nearly finished a portrait of Mrs Walter Cave which he had begun, and gave it to Sickert, 'in a then fit of good humour', with two other canvases (Head of Mrs Beaumont y430 and possibly Head of a Girl y432). ¹⁰ According to Sickert, it was subsequently lost, or, in William Rothenstein's opinion, completed and sold by Whistler 'as a work of his own.' ¹¹

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. 431) as 'Portrait of Mrs Walter Cave'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• Rothenstein, William, Men and Memories: Recollections of William Rothenstein ..., 2 vols, London, 1931-1932, vol. 1, p. 169.
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, pp. 282-85.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• Sickert, Walter Richard, ‘L’Affaire Greaves’, New Age, 15 June 1911, pp. 159-60, at p. 160.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 214).

Other

• None.