Julia de Kay Revillon
Birthname: Whistler
Alias: Julia de Kay Whistler Revillon
Nationality: American
Date of birth: 26 July 1855
Place of birth: USA
Date of death: 20 November 1930
Place of death: London
Category: relative
Identity:
Julia de Kay Revillon, née Whistler, was Whistler's niece. She was named after her mother, Julia, the second wife of George W. Whistler, who had five children, Julia de Kay (1855-1930); Thomas Delano (b. 1857); Ross Winans (b. 1858); Neva (1860-1907); Joseph Swift (1865-1905). Julia de Kay Whistler married Albert Charles Revillon (1846-1915) in Baltimore on 30 May 1885.
Life:
Whistler's mother gave Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room y034 to Julia's mother. On her death on 25 December 1875 it was bequeathed to Julia. Following her marriage to Albert Revillon, Julia took the painting to St Petersburg and it did not return to London until Whistler's exhibition at the Goupil Gallery in 1892. Julia wrote to Whistler in 1892 to say that she was thinking of selling the work, 'considering what a swell you are & what high prices your pictures fetch.' She asked Whistler's advice as to what price she should ask (GUW #05175). D. C. Thomson tried to get £800 for it but it was finally sold at auction in February 1894 for £199.10.0.
Bibliography:
Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .
