Isaac Burnet Davenport

Identity:

Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport was a dentist living in Paris. His brother Dr William S. Davenport was also a dentist.

He was the son of William Whitney Davenport (1820-1899) and Azubah Minervia Davenport (1829-1915). He was the oldest of at a large family, which included Idalette Azubah, Ella, Levi Caleb, Nannell, William Samuel, Kirk Addison and Ella. Furthermore he was the half-brother of Delos, Saphronia, Delos T., Christina Jane, Lucellus Edbert, Frone and one other boy, the children of Abigail Goodwin Davenport and W.W. Davenport.

His younger brother, William Samuel (or Slocum) Davenport (1868-1938), was Whistler's dentist in Paris: Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip consulted him when in Paris in the late 1890s. Whistler attended seances run by the brothers Davenport in Paris. He told J. J. Cowan 'their operating was just like the flutter of a butterfly in his mouth'.

Life:

I. B. Davenport's brother was Whistler's dentist in Paris. Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip consulted I. B. Davenport when in Paris in the late 1890s. Whistler told J. J. Cowan, 'their operating was just like the flutter of a butterfly in his mouth'. According to I. B. Davenport, Whistler began to paint his portrait in 1894 but this was abandoned and another begun in 1895, Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport y426. He sat on and off for this painting until 1902/3. After Whistler's death, the portrait was varnished and sent to the sitter. It was exhibited at the Whistler memorial exhibition in Paris in 1905.

Whistler attended séances run by the Davenport brothers in Paris.

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 .

'Isaac Burnet Davenort, GENi website. Hood Museum website.