Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

Home 

Eva Carrington

Title: later Lady
Birthname: Evelyn Victoria Anne Carrington
Alias: Eva, Eveline Chandler
Nationality: British
Date of birth: 1887
Place of birth: Lambeth, London
Date of death: 1979
Category: model

Identity:

Evelyn ('Eva') Carrington was Whistler's model between 1898 and 1902. Her younger sister Gladys was also his model.

Evelyn Victoria Ann Chandler was born in Lambeth in 1887, and christened on 12 June 1887, the parents given as Walter Robert and Louisa Chandler.

The records seem to contradict each other, but suggest that the Chandlers somehow became the Carringtons.

In the 1891 census Eveline Victoria Anne Carrington aged 2 and Gladys Winifred Carrington, aged 1, the daughters of Walter Robert Carrington (messenger and hall porter, aged 36) and his wife Louisa (a theatre attendant, aged 26) were living at 310 Lisle Street, St Annes, London. Ten years later 'Evelyn' and 'Gladys Carrington' were living with their parents, the Carringtons, at 304 Harper Street, WC. The two girls, 'Eva' and 'Gladys' both modelled for Whistler.

She was a successful actress. In Dublin in 1905, while starring as a Gibson Girl in The Catch of the Season with Seymour Hick's company, Eva met her first husband, Jack Southwell Russell. According to The Peerage, in February 1906 Evelyn Anne Victoria Chandler (1888-1979) married J. S. Russell (1884-1909), 25th Baron de Clifford, who owned 13,000 acres in County Mayo. He died in a car crash. In 1913 she married Captain Arthur Stock of Glenapp Castle, Ayrshire, and in 1922, George Vernon Tate, grandson of the founder of the Tate Gallery. She had several children, and the eldest, Edward, succeeded to the baronetcy.

Life:

Eva was tall (6' 2"), graceful and acrobatic and posed for a number of Whistler's dancing girls, e.g. The Dancer (No.1) m1624 and The Tambourine m1628. Whistler called her, 'the long legged dancing Blue Girl' (#04787). She also posed on occasion with a baby, e.g. Mother and child m1279. Her sister and she at times posed together e.g. Eva and Gladys Carrington seated on a sofa m1528, Eva and Gladys Carrington seated on a sofa m1529, The Bead Stringers m1530.

In 1898 Edith saw Whistler at work at 8 Fitzroy Street: 'Whistler was making nude paintings at this time of a girl, Eva Carrington - or they might have been pastels. He discovered her also in one of the 'alleys'. She was quite brazen and when I went into the studio he had an understanding that his maid Marie should take her out of his studio to the kitchen - 'while Miss Edith is here'.'

Eva modelled for Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl y421 in 1901 (see Sketch of 'Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl' m1379). When Whistler was convalescing in Corsica in 1901 he begged Rosalind Birnie Philip to keep in touch with the Carringtons: 'you might send round for them and see how they are getting on - Give some little present to Eva - anything - chocolates if you like - to both - & say I wanted some account of her - as indeed I do -' (#04787). He wanted to continue painting Eva on his return, and intended to bring a blue screen to Fitzroy Street from Paris for the purpose.

Bibliography:

Shaw, Edith and Margaret F. MacInnes, 'Four Years with Whistler', Apollo, vol. 87, March 1968, pp. 198-201; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 ; MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 . Jiminez, Jill Berk (ed.), Dictionary of Artists' Models, 2013.

The Peerage website at http://www.thepeerage.com/p8418.htm; National Portrait gallery website at https://www.npg.org.uk; Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Carrington.