Pickford Robert Waller

Identity:

Pickford Robert Waller, an English designer and collector, was the son of a builder Robert John Waller and Harriet Shafto Pickford. He had a brother Charles Bullen Waller. Pickford Waller and his wife had one daughter, Sybil Waller.

Life:

Waller, an avid collector of Whistleriana, first met Whistler when he visited his studio as a young man in the company of the artist Matthew White Ridley.

At the sale of Murray Marks' collection in 1879 Waller bought for one guinea twenty-nine drawings by Whistler of blue and white vases in the collection in Sir H. Thompson. Six drawings were lent by Waller for exhibition in London in 1905 as 'Illustrations to Sir Henry Thompson's catalogue of his Collection of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain, 1878'.

Following Whistler's bankruptcy and the selling of the White House in 1879, the Butterfly Cabinet, Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Butterfly Cabinet y195, designed by Whistler and E. W. Godwin, was auctioned. It later appeared in a second hand furniture shop, where, according to Pennell, it was bought by Waller. It was he who had what was originally a fireplace converted into a cabinet by replacing the grate with doors adapted from the dado.

Waller also acquired Two figures m0311, r.: Study for 'Symphony in White No. 3'; v.: Draped figures m0322, r.: A group of figures; v.: Figure m0341, r.: Harmony in Gold and Brown; v.: Nude figure m0374, r.: Sketch of Battersea Reach for a Nocturne; v.: Illegible (skyline?) m0474, Sketch for a Nocturne m0475, Study for a Nocturne m0477, Studies of Baby Leyland m0516, Double Gourd Vase and Saucer-Shaped Dish m0613, Beaker m0614, Beaker m0615, Sketch design for decoration of passage of 96 Cheyne Walk m0660, r.: Two sketches of Nellie Farren; v.: Studies of two actors or actresses, one playing a banjo m0667, r.: Demon; v.: Young woman m0668, Theatrical sketch m0672, Man in the dock at Bow Street Police Court m0679, A Study m0686, Maud Franklin m0689, r. and v.: Design for the cover of 'Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics' m0706, Design for the cover of 'Whistler v. Ruskin: Art and Art Critics' m0707, Sir Henry Cole, and a list of pictures m0839, Sketch of 'Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander' m0843, Study of Maud Waller for 'Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl' m0846, r.: Caricature; v.: Portrait of Whistler m0847, Milly Finch m0907, r.: and v.: Eagle m1147, Skull and crossbones m1481, Butterfly m1548, r.: Butterfly for 'Noblesse abuse'; v.: tail m1550, Butterfly for 'Noblesse abuse!' m1551, r.: Butterfly; v.: Butterflies m1552, Butterfly beside the sea m1554, Butterfly beside the sea m1555, r.: Butterfly and tricolour flag; v.: Two butterflies and part of a third m1556, Butterfly m1557, Butterfly and tricolour flag m1560, Butterfly m1571, v.: Butterfly; r.: see No. 1268 m1572, r.: and v.: Butterfly m1573, Butterfly m1574, Butterfly m1577. On his death in 1930 Waller bequeathed his collection to his daughter Sybil.

According to Waller, Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226 was painted from his brother Major Charles Bullen Waller's second daughter Maud, who was a beautiful child and a pet of Whistler's. Waller, who according to James Guthrie, frequented Whistler's studio whilst he was painting this work, recalled that when the portrait was halfway through it was put aside, but that it was sent to the Grosvenor Gallery for the private view and taken away directly after. Waller drew caricatures of Whistler, one of which Guthrie reproduced. It may have been as an exchange that Whistler gave Waller r.: Caricature; v.: Portrait of Whistler m0847.

1874/8 ref; 1878-99 author, 1885x22 recip., - M.593

Bibliography:

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 ; Lumley, John, 'The Pickford Wallers', Christie's Review of the Season, 1974, Herbert, John, ed., London: Hutchinson, 1975,