The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 501
La Toison rouge
Date
La Toison rouge probably dates from between 1896 and 1900. 1
La Toison rouge, The Hunterian
It is dated from the technique and colour, and from a certain similarity in technique to Grey and Silver: La Petite Souris y502.
Images
La Toison rouge, The Hunterian
Subject
Titles
Only one title is known with one tiny variation:
- 'La Toison rouge' (1904, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). 2
- 'La Toison Rouge' (1936, University of Glasgow). 3
- 'La Toison rouge' (1980, YMSM). 4
The title of this painting, 'La Toison rouge', can be translated as 'The Red Fleece', a reference to the model's hair.
Description
La Toison rouge, The Hunterian
A half-length portrait of a girl, in vertical format. She has auburn shoulder-length hair, and is wearing a dark grey or black dress. She is in slight three-quarter view to left, facing the viewer, and her left hand is raised towards her right shoulder, grasping her hair. The background is dark green.
Sitter
Unknown.
Technique
Technique
La Toison rouge, The Hunterian
The canvas is very thin, and primed with grey. The paint is roughly scrubbed on at the bottom of the canvas, and the curiously attenuated hands have been partially scraped out. The fine spiky brushwork around the face looks lively but a bit uncertain, and numerous horizontal strokes give her a rather strange mouth. Her beautiful auburn hair is set off by the dark green background, a typical colour scheme for Whistler in the late 1890s.
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
84.5 x 64.5 x 8.8 cm.
History
Provenance
- 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
- 1935: given by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.
Exhibitions
- 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 44) as ' "La Toison rouge" – Inachevé'.
No record of an exhibition in Whistler's lifetime has been found.
By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's gift to the University of Glasgow, it is not lendable.
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. 501), plate 349, as 'La Toison rouge'.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 44) as ' "La Toison rouge" – Inachevé'.
Journals 1855-1905
- None.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- Enaud-Lechien, Isabelle, James Whistler, le peintre et le polémiste (1834-1903), Courbevoie, 1995, pp. 175, 177, 186, repr.
- Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 169 (cat. no. 138).
Books, General
- None.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1936 (cat. no. 35).
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
- The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41087.
- Art UK website at www.bbc.co.uk.
Unpublished
- Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 296).
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: Dated 'late 1890s' in YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 501).
2: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 44).
3: James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1936 (cat. no. 35).
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 501).