Whistler on Exhibition

Magazine Antiques, June, 1995 by Margaret F. MacDonald

The most important exhibition of Whistler's works since 1905, entitled James McNeill Whistler, will be on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., until August 20. It was jointly organized by the Tate Gallery in London, the Musee d'Orsay in Paris, and the National Gallery of Art.

1 See Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler (London and Philadelphia, 1908), vol. 1, pp. 82-83; and Andrew McLaren Young et al., The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler (New Haven and London, 1980), p. 24.

2 The painting is in a private collection and is illustrated in Young et al., Paintings, No. 32.

3 In the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and illustrated in Richard Dorment and Mavgaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler (Tate Gallery, London), 1994, p. 288, Fig. 54.

4 Letter from Whistler, London, to Lucas, June 26, 1862 (Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut).

5 In the Musee d'Orsay in Paris and illustrated in Francoise Cachin, Manet, trans. Emily Read (New York, 1990), pp. 46-47.

6 May 31, 1863.

7 London Athenaeum, May 23, 1863.

8 See illustrations in A. L. Baldry, Albert Moore (London, 1894), pp. 26, 28.

9 The Six Projects is a collective name given to six oil sketches Whistler made for an architectural frieze that was never completed. Now in the Freer Gallery of Art, the sketches are entitled Venus; Symphony in Blue and Pink: Symphony in White and Red; Variations in Blue and Green; The White Symphony: Three Girls; and Symphony in Green and Violet. See Dorment and MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, pp. 92-94.

10 For more about Whistler's association with Leyland see ANTIQUES, June 1993, pp. 894-901.

11 In the Freer Gallery of Art and illustrated in Dorment and MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, p. 287, Fig. 45.

12 See ibid., p. 89, No. 24.

13 These portraits are Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F. R. Leyland, in the Freer Gallery of Art; Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland, in the Frick Collection in New York City and Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, in the Portland An Museum in Portland, Maine. The three paintings are illustrated in Young et al., Paintings, Nos. 97, 106, and 107, respectively.

14 The painting, entitled Arrangement in Grey and Black No 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle, is in the Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, Scotland, and is discussed and illustrated in Dorment and MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, pp. 143-145, No. 61.

15 London World, May 22, 1878.

16 See n. 13.

17 The clipping (from an unidentified newspaper of 1874) is GUL PC I, p. 67, in the Centre for Whistler Studies, Glasgow University Library, Glasgow, Scotland.

18 The portraits of Franklin are Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, in the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts, which was exhibited in 1877 as Harmony in Amber and Black; and Arrangement in Brown, of which the present whereabouts are unknown. They are illustrated in Young et al., Paintings, Nos. 181 and 182, respectively.