The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt mainly dates from 1899, but may have been worked on further, up to its first exhibition in 1902.

1898: The portrait was commissioned by the sitter's husband, George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914), who wrote to Whistler:

'I am hoping you will feel like doing the small oval of my wife I spoke about last summer, and will get it well started this January. We expect to be in Paris one month, and then go to Florence and Rome for another month.' ¹

1899: Mrs Vanderbilt posed in Paris in June, and on return to the USA she wrote to Whistler, 'I cannot begin to tell you how much I enjoyed the hours passed with you. I will always remember them with delight, and cher Maître, I will be most happy to continue them at the first opportunity.' ²

1901: In March Whistler proposed to return Vanderbilt's cheque for Portrait of George W. Vanderbilt y481, although he thought he 'might perhaps manage Mrs. Vanderbilt - and that would simplify the position, as nothing is advanced upon that.' ³ In February 1901 Vanderbilt wrote to Whistler that his wife was ready to sit for her portrait again, in April or May in Paris. ⁴

1902: However, no more sittings took place, because Whistler decided the picture was fit for exhibition, and, as he told Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914), 'I am sending the portrait of Mrs Vanderbilt to the Champ de Mars - But this is a secret - confided to you only - It is to be a surprise to them on their arrival!' ⁵ It was exhibited at the Douzième Exposition, Ouvrages de Peintures, Sculpture, Dessin, Gravure, Architecture et Objets d'Art, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Grand Palais, Paris, 1902 (cat. no. 1193).

In November 1902 Pennell asked Whistler why he did not exhibit the portrait at the RSPP that year:

'[Whistler] said that when Vanderbilt saw it at the Salon, he seemed to think it was not quite finished, "That is, that I might like to have one or two more sittings from Mrs. Vanderbilt - simply an excuse for not having the picture go to other exhibitions." ' ⁶

Images

Subject

Titles

Possible titles include:

• 'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame V . . . ' (1902, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). ⁷
• 'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt' (1980, YMSM). ⁸

'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt' is the preferred title.

Description

Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt, private collection

A head and bust portrait of a woman, in oval, vertical, format. She is seen in slight three-quarter view, to left, against a dark background. She has dark curly hair parted at left and clustering over her forehead. She wears a dark cloak with a broad upstanding gauze or lace frill around the neck. Her evening dress is cut low over her breast and she wears a necklace.

Sitter

Edith Vanderbilt and child, photograph, http://www.biltmore.com

Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt (1873-1958), née Edith Stuyvesant Dresser. She married George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914) in 1898 (see Portrait of George W. Vanderbilt y481). After his death she married Senator P. G. Gerry (1879-1957) of Providence, RI.

Technique

Technique

Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt, private collection

Thinly painted with broad brushstrokes on the dress and careful, fluid brushstrokes modelling the face. The canvas has been lined.

Conservation History

It was cleaned about 1958, according to the Biltmore records. ⁹

Frame

Non-Whistler frame.

History

Provenance

• 1898: commissioned by George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914), Biltmore, NC;
• 1902: completed and sent to Vanderbilt;
• 1914: bequeathed by Vanderbilt to the sitter, his widow, Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt (1873-1958) (later Mrs Edith Stuyvesant Gerry);
• 1958: on her death, 21 December 1958, it passed to a private collection;
• By 2014: on exhibition in Biltmore, NC.

Exhibitions

• 1902: Douzième Exposition, Ouvrages de Peintures, Sculpture, Dessin, Gravure, Architecture et Objets d'Art, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Grand Palais, Paris, 1902 (cat. no. 1193) as 'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame V . . . '
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 33) as 'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame V . . . '

Panel of five paintings, GUL MS Whistler NB 2/120-121e

Whistler was displeased because the Hanging Committee at the Salon did not consult him on the arrangement of his group of pictures. A sketch, Panel of five paintings m1706 indicates the preferred hang: Violet and Silver: The Great Sea y298, Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt y515, Purple and Gold: Phryne the Superb! - Builder of Temples y490, Grenat et or: Le Petit Cardinal y469 and Gold and Orange: The Neighbours y423. ¹⁰ The exhibition opened on 21 April 1902, and it appears Whistler was worried because the portrait of Mrs Vanderbilt was 'skied' and also showed some finger-marks, but on the other hand, he was not concerned about the subdued lighting criticised by some visitors to the show. ¹¹

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. 515), plate 338, as 'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Douzième Exposition, Ouvrages de Peintures, Sculpture, Dessin, Gravure, Architecture et Objets d'Art, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Grand Palais, Paris, 1902 (cat. no. 1193) as 'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame V . . . '
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 33) as 'Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame V . . . '

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., ‘Дж. Уистлер - 4 портрета [Dzh. Uistler, 4 Portraits]’, Мир искусства [Mir Iskusstva, 'World of Art'], vol. 8, 1902, pp. 155-59, repr. p. 159.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, p. 203.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 264-65.
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 329.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• MacInnes, Margaret F., [M. F. MacDonald], 'Whistler's Last Years: Spring 1901 - Algiers and Corsica', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 73, 1969, pp. 323-42, at p. 330.

Websites

• Ross, Judy, 'Whistler and Vanderbilt: an artist and his patron', Open House The Official Blog of Biltmore, 20 November 2014, website at http://www.biltmore.com (acc. 2014).

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 227).

Other

• None.