The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study of an Italian Boy was painted in Paris at some time between 1897 and 1900, according to a note on the verso written by Harold Wright (1885-1961), possibly with information from Whistler's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958).

Study of an Italian Boy, The Hunterian

The technique and colouring help to confirm a date in the late 1890s.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's original title is not known. Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Study of an Italian Boy' (1980, YMSM). ¹

Description

Study of an Italian Boy, The Hunterian

An unfinished half-length portrait of a boy, in vertical format. He is facing the viewer. His brown hair is shoulder-length, his eyes are dark brown.

Sitter

Unknown. Whistler painted a number of portraits of Italian children. Harold Wright (1885-1961), who obtained most of his information from Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), noted that Whistler thought the boy 'de race', that is, he looked like a thorough-bred or aristocrat.

The Hunterian website suggested that this was the same boy as in Brun et or: De race y511. However, his colouring is lighter, his mouth larger, his features heavier, and he does not look as young and pretty as the boy in Brun et or: De race.

Technique

Technique

Study of an Italian Boy, The Hunterian

It is on a fine plain weave canvas, with 20-25 threads/cm, which was commercially prepared, being primed in grey, possibly over an off-white base. Patches of priming show through the paint, for instance between the brushstrokes in the face. The regular texture of the threads showing through the priming was apparently approved, and used to good effect, by the artist. ²

The boy's head and shoulders were sketched in roughly, possibly with a graphite pencil or crayon. The modelling of the face was left unfinished. The eye sockets were painted extremely thinly. Professor Townsend described the medium and technique:

'the paint is thinned but did not run. It is glossy in thicker areas, and it may be a megilp-type material. The use of such a material would account for the lack of drips and runs, and it would have dried fast – good for sketching or the early stages of a portrait. The shadows of the eye are made by using less paint.' ³

The portrait is clearly unfinished, and the lower half of the canvas is bare.

Conservation History

Professor Townsend observed:

'It is on the original stretcher, with the original fixings, tacks on the tacking margin, and a well-trimmed canvas that does not have any spare fabric on the reverse. Its significant brown discolouration suggests a poor quality fibre rather than linen.' ⁴

The canvas has not been lined and as a result is slightly brittle and fragile. There are minor distortions in the canvas, but the support is structurally sound. ⁵

Frame

Study of an Italian Boy, The Hunterian

Study of an Italian Boy, frame detail

It is now in a Whistlerian Flat frame, dating from the 1920s. ⁶

At one time the painting was put in an older frame, painted with a fish-scale pattern on the right side, which fitted this painting but was definitely not made for it originally, since it dates from over twenty years earlier.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to Whistler's ward and executrix Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1958: bequeathed by Miss R. Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime, nor thereafter.

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. 514), plate 329, as 'Study of an Italian Boy'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Whistler Pastels and Related Works in the Hunterian Art Gallery, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, 1984, p. 7 (not exhibited).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41215.
• ArtUK website at http://artuk.org.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.