The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis dates from Whistler's stay in Lyme Regis between September and November 1895. ¹

Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis, Georgia Museum of Art

On 17 September 1895 Whistler wrote from Lyme Regis to the London art dealer David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), 'I shall have some lovely little pictures of the nature of "The little Sweet shop" - you remember - only if any thing finer in quality'. ² On 2 November 1895 Thomson mentioned visiting Whistler in Lyme Regis and seeing several shop fronts: '[T]he Shops of Lyme Regis the Barbers, the Sweet Shop the Drapers & the other delicacies. The delightfully quaint composition, the splendid drawing & the subtle colour & tone.' ³

It was exhibited in A Collection of Selected Works by Painters of the English, French & Dutch Schools, Goupil Gallery, London, 1898 (cat. no. 24) as 'The Barber's Shop'.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several variations on the title are known:

• 'The Barber's Shop' (1898, Goupil). ⁴
• 'Barbers' Shop' (1901, Whistler). ⁵
• 'Rose and Red: The Baker's [sic] Shop at Lyme Regis' (1905, ISSPG). ⁶
• 'Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop at Lyme Regis' (1905, ISSPG). ⁷
• 'Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis' (1980, YMSM). ⁸

'Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis' is the generally accepted title, rather than the original succinct title 'The Barber's Shop'.

Description

Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis, Georgia Museum of Art

A shop front, in horizontal format. At right are two doorways, and standing in the right hand one is a girl wearing a hat, with a red pinafore over a dark dress. Through the other open door is visible a figure in a white apron, and shelving. To left is a square multi-paned window with goods along the window sill, and a dog on the pavement below. The shop is on a slight hill, rising to right.

Site

Lyme Regis, Dorset, a fishing port on the coast in south-west England. Whistler also drew several lithographs in the sea-side town, including The Little Doorway, Lyme Regis c119 and The Little Steps, Lyme Regis c131, and Sunday, Lyme Regis c134.

This is one of many shop fronts painted by Whistler in the 1880s and 1890s. See for instance An Orange Note: Sweet Shop y264, where the figures of children are equally prominent, and, in Lyme Regis, The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis y443.

Comments

Merrill comments on the important influence of such small scale, almost abstract compositions, citing Childe Hassam's News Depot, Cos Cob (1912, Florence Griswold Museum, Old Lyme, CT) as an example. ⁹

Technique

Technique

Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis, Georgia Museum of Art

It is painted thinly on a grey primed panel, with rather cursory brushwork on the pavement, and a higher degree of finish within the doorway at right that frames the child in her glowing orangey-red dress.

Conservation History

Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis,photograph, ca 1945

Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis, photograph, ca 1980

Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis, Georgia Museum of Art

Photographs show that while the main fabric of the painting has not changed,there are signs of abrasion at the edges.

History

Provenance

• 1895/1898: probably sold by the artist to David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), Goupil Gallery;
• 1898/1901: bought by Humphrey Roberts (d. 1908?), London;
• 1905/1906: sold by Roberts to William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London art dealer.
• Before 1920: bought from John W. Simpson (1850-1920), New York, by Knoedler, New York dealers;
• By 1945: sold by Knoedler's to Alfred Heber Holbrook (1874-1974), Athens, Georgia;
• 1945: presented by Alfred Heber Holbrook to the University of Georgia, of which he was founder, in memory of his wife Eva Underhill Holbrook (1868-1940).

On 17 September 1895 Whistler wrote from Lyme Regis to the London art dealer David Croal Thomson:

'I shall have some lovely little pictures of the nature of "The little Sweet shop" - you remember - only if any thing finer in quality -

But what is the use - I dont want them to stay in England - therefore you could do nothing with them as I wish to sell no more pictures to Englishmen.' ¹⁰

It is not certain that Thomson bought this painting but Roberts certainly owned it by September 1901. ¹¹ It was sold by Roberts at some time after Whistler's death to W. Marchant, London art dealer. ¹²

According to the New York art dealer William Macbeth, it was later owned by John W. Simpson, and bought from him by Knoedler's, who sold it to A. H. Holbrook of Athens, Georgia, about 1945. It was presented by him to the University of Georgia in memory of his wife in that year.

Exhibitions

• 1898: A Collection of Selected Works by Painters of the English, French & Dutch Schools, Goupil Gallery, London, 1898 (cat. no. 24) as 'The Barber's Shop'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 102) as 'Rose and Red: The Baker's Shop at Lyme Regis' (sic; listed correctly in the illustrated edition of the catalogue).

On 16 September 1901 Whistler wrote to Humphrey Roberts: 'your little picture of the "Barbers' Shop" has never been shown in London. It was kind of you to lend it to me once in Paris - and I venture now to ask you to let me have it for the International - The tiny panel is rather a favorite of mine.' ¹³ But it had, of course, been seen in London. In any case, the owner may have refused, for there is no record of it being exhibited in Paris or in 1901 at the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers. Whistler again tried to borrow the painting through Thomson for an exhibition in 1902, but, as far as is known, without result. ¹⁴ It was, however, lent by Roberts to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in 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. 444), plate 291, as 'Rose and Red: The Barber's Shop, Lyme Regis'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• A Collection of Selected Works by Painters of the English, French & Dutch Schools, Goupil Gallery, London, 1898 (cat. no. 24) as 'The Barber's Shop'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 102) as 'Rose and Red: The Baker's Shop at Lyme Regis' (sic; listed correctly in the illustrated edition of the catalogue).

Journals 1855-1905

• Standard, London, 11 March 1898.

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, p. 222 (cat. no. 445).
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 445).

Books, General

• Thomson, David Croal, 'Whistler and his London Exhibitions', Art Journal, April 1905, pp. 107-11, at p. 110.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• A University Collects: Georgia Museum of Art, American Federation of Arts and Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA, 1969-70 (cat. no. 43) repr.
• Windows and Doors, Henscher Museum, Huntingdon, NY, 1972.
• Spink, Nesta, Whistler: The Later Years, University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, 1978 (cat. no. 37).
• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, pp. 128-29, 196 (cat. no. 12), repr.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Georgia Museum of Art website at http://emuseum.georgiamuseum.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 349).

Other

• None.