Christine Anderson

Identity:

Mrs Christine Anderson was manager of the 'Company of the Butterfly' established by Whistler in London.

Christiana was the daughter of an architect, Thomas Barrett. On 24 May 1890 she married Baldwyn Charles Lloyd, 'gentleman of means', of 70 Marylands Road, Maida Vale, London. She was then living at 67 Grafton Street. He was violent and unfaithful, and she was granted a divorce in December 1893.

In 1895 she was living at 31 Whittingstall Road, Fulham, and married Charles Arthur [Mason?] Anderson, actor or author, according to various semi-illegible records. He was the son of a Church of England clergyman, Ebenezer Anderson, and his wife Anne Jane S. Anderson.

In June 1899 she was living at 6 Fitzroy Street, near to Whistler's studio, and convenient for working for him. However she left Whistler's employ later in the year and went to stay with her husband's father in the vicarage, Berwick Bassett, Swindon. Two years later her husband was listed in the census as living there but her name was not recorded at that time. Her subsequent history is unknown. Her husband died in Bristol in 1946, but it is likely that she died before then.

Life:

In 1896 Whistler set up the 'Company of the Butterfly'. By putting his affairs on a commercial basis he hoped to avoid the day-to-day involvement with clients that came between him and his work. He took the lease of a shop at 2 Hinde Street, Manchester Square, London, on 2 April 1897.

He employed Mrs Anderson as manager of the shop between at least the spring of 1897 and the autumn of 1899.

A drawing, The Blue Butterfly m1473, shows the projected shop front. The Pennells described the two rooms, which were on the first floor: 'they were charming, a delicate tint on the walls, the floor covered with matting, white muslin curtains at the windows. A few prints were hung. One or two small pictures stood on easels'. It operated until 1901 but was not all Whistler had hoped. Mrs Anderson was inefficient, and the shop was closed half the time; the Pennells never saw anyone there. Whistler was continually 'astonished' at her attitude towards clients, but never, as far as is known, got around to firing her for incompetence. C. L. Freer did manage to buy a few things there, but clients still preferred to come direct to Whistler's studio.

Bibliography:

'A Local Divorce Action', Middlesex County Times, 9 December 1893, p. 3.

Hopkinson, Martin J., 'Whistler's Company of the Butterfly', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 136, October 1994, pp. 700-04 ; Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908 , vol. 2, pp. 199-200.