The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis was painted in 1895.

The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis, Freer Gallery of Art

According to Whistler, it was painted at Lyme Regis, Dorset, where he stayed in September and November 1895. ¹

Images

Subject

Titles

Two titles have been suggested:

• 'Lyme Regis' (1901, Whistler). ²
• 'The Little Nurse' (1904, Royal Scottish Academy). ³
• 'The Little Nurse' (1980, YMSM). ⁴
• 'The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis' (2020, WPP).

'The Little Nurse' was not Whistler's title: it would have been very unusual for a work to be exhibited by Whistler with a subjective title, and no mention of colour, but it is possible that he did refer to it by this title.

It was painted at Lyme Regis in Dorset, where Whistler stayed in September and November 1895. He went originally with his wife, Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896), in the vain hope that the sea air would improve her health. She had cancer, and there being no improvement, she returned to London to be nursed by her sisters. Whistler stayed on to work, hoping to raise money to pay for doctors and drugs. Thus the subject of The Little Nurse, may have had added poignancy for him at this time.

However, it is suggested here that 'The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis' is a preferable title, as combining Whistler's original title with the later title.

Description

The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis, Freer Gallery of Art

A shop front in horizontal format. It is almost symmetrical, with curtained windows, each with 3 x 4 panes of glass, on each side of a dark doorway. Glimpses of a picture on the wall, and possibly a window, are seen through the door. At left, on the pavement, stand two girls, one in cream, and the other in grey, with a white pinafore, holding a baby dressed in white.

Site

The town of Lyme Regis in Dorset. It was a popular small holiday resort as well as a busy fishing port. Whistler drew and painted several similar subjects there including, for instance, Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis y444, and the lithographs, The Little Doorway, Lyme Regis c119, and The Little Steps, Lyme Regis c131.

Technique

Technique

The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis, Freer Gallery of Art

It is sombre and muted in colour, and very thinly painted. The window at left was painted first, and the paint having become more transparent, the window ledge shows through the children standing in front of it. The windows, and the interior seen through the door, were painted with a small brush, very carefully, and the children sketched in more freely, their features barely indicated. There are signs of some reworking: a black outline was added to clarify the the baby's outline at left. Furthermore, the curtain at right in the window at right, and the dark interior between the curtains in the window at left, were painted over the original glazing bars; these bars were partly re-inforced at right, but remain obscured at left.

Conservation History

There are signs of abrasion and paint loss at the edges.

History

Provenance

• 1901: bought from Alexander Reid (1854-1928), Glasgow art dealer, by John James Cowan (1846-1936), Edinburgh;
• 1904: sold through Marchant, London art dealer, to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, in June 1904;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

It was bought from Alexander Reid by the Scottish collector J. J. Cowan, and identified by Whistler from a drawing and photograph sent by Cowan. ⁵ Cowan sold it through William Marchant & Co. to C. L. Freer in June 1904 for £150.0.0 plus commission.

It has the label of Goupil, London art dealers, on the back, which may mean that they handled it, or exhibited it, at some time.

Exhibitions

• 1904: 78th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1904 (cat. no. 313) as 'The Little Nurse'.

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime, as far as is known.

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot be lent.

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. 443), plate 290, as 'The Little Nurse'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 78th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1904 (cat. no. 313) as 'The Little Nurse'.

Journals 1855-1905

• Sickert, Oswald, ‘The Oil Paintings of James McNeill Whistler’, The Studio, vol. 30, October 1903, pp. 3-10, repr. p. 16.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Menpes, Mortimer, Whistler as I Knew Him, London, 1904, repr. f.p. 140.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, repr. p. 16.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948, p. 16 (04.74).
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 147, 295, pl. 55.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.74a-b.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 350).

Other

• None.