The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe probably dates from the summer or autumn of 1899, when Whistler was in Dieppe. He was particularly impressed by the way in which the Dieppe laundresses treated his linen, and contrasted it with the treatment it received in London.

'I just wish M'ame you could see my linen as I appear now at the table! - Madame Lefeve [sic] has given the washing to one of these wonderful Blanchiseuses [sic] here - and my shirts are gotten up like the Prince Poniatowski's !!! - and look like lawn! - "Tout à fait comme celles de Monsieur le Prince!" says Madame Lefèvre. with affection! - and certainly such laundry work M'ame, is unknown in the Island!' ¹

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested, but with varying punctuation:

• ‘La blanchisseuse; Dieppe’ (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). ²
• ‘La Blanchisseuse – Dieppe’ (1936, University of Glasgow). ³
• 'La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe' (1980, YMSM). ⁴

'La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe' is the preferred title.

Description

La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe, The Hunterian

A shopfront, in vertical format. It shows two storeys of a building, and a section of road and pavement. On the first floor there is a narrow balcony in front of tall windows that are slightly open, the curtain at left pulled back slightly. The wall is painted yellow, with off-white round the window. The small shop below has an open door at left, in which two children, one a toddler in a red dress, are standing. To right are two adjoining windows, one being three panes wide and four high with a cafe curtain drawn back at an angle, the other two by four, also with a partly drawn curtain. In front of this stands a girl in a black dress talking to another person.

Site

La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe, The Hunterian

It is recorded as being in the town of Dieppe in France. The Culture Grid website identified it as follows:

'This laundress's shop is probably in 21-23 rue Notre Dame, Dieppe, France. Located just off the main square, in 1994 'Blanchisserie' was still written in the fascia, although it was no longer in use as such. Whistler was much impressed by the way the Dieppe laundresses treated his linen ... This, along with the charm of the dilapidated shop front, probably influenced his choice of subject.' ⁵

The Laundress: ‘La Blanchisseuse de la Place Dauphine’, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Whistler had drawn a similar subject in Paris in 1894, the lithograph called The Laundress: 'La Blanchisseuse de la Place Dauphine' c093.

Technique

Technique

La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe, The Hunterian

The panel is primed in grey, with pronounced application brushmarks in the long (vertical) direction. The priming is visible between the painted elements, and was largely used for the grey pavement. Shadowy lines beneath some of the vertical elements suggest an underlying charcoal drawing that was picked up by the paint, but infra-red images do not confirm this. ⁶ Most areas have a single layer of paint or no paint: few colours were used for this rapid sketch. The colours – touches of pink and green, brown and grey – are tinted on to the windows as thinly as watercolour. The figures are painted carefully with a tiny pointed brush, except for the child, who is a smudge of red. The figures were put in after the rest of the panel had dried. It is highly worked, with a subtle arrangement of angles, from the bow-topped windows to the drawn curtains.

Conservation History

The panel has an auxiliary backing and framing device, both made from mahogany-type hardwood, with adhered thin battens that have mitred corners, possibly made for exhibition in 1905. ⁷

Frame

La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe, The Hunterian

La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe, frame detail

Grau-style frame, dating from the late 1890s or early 1900s. ⁸ Size: 48.0 x 38.2 x 6.9 cm.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler’s studio at his death in 1903 and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1935: given by Miss R. 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. 81) as ‘La blanchisseuse; Dieppe’.

By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's gift to the University of Glasgow, the picture can not 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. 527), plate 357, as 'La Blanchisseuse, Dieppe'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Exposition des œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l’École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 81) as ‘La blanchisseuse; Dieppe’.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cabanne, Pierre, Whistler, Bergamo, 1985, p. 91.
• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907, p. 192 (cat. no. 223).
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 171 (cat. no. 155).

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1936 (cat. no. 13).
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995, p. 249 (cat. no. 171) (not exhibited).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• The Hunterian, University of Glasgow website, at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41183.
• ArtUK website at artuk.org.
• Culture Grid website at culturegrid.org.uk.
• The lithograph The Laundress: ‘La Blanchisseuse de la Place Dauphine’ at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, website at metmuseum.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.