William Rickman Farquhar
Date of birth: 1 June 1860
Place of birth: Sussex
Date of death: 2 January 1952
Category: patron
Identity:
On 2 February 1897 William Rickman Farquhar (m.1897) third son of Ellen Rickman and Admiral Sir Arthur Farquhar of Aberdeenshire, married Marion Peck, the eldest daughter of Harold Stanton Peck of the U.S. Navy. They had two children, William and Jean.
Life:
His wife posed for Portrait of Miss Marion Peck y439. The painting was never finished to Whistler's satisfaction.
After their marriage (which took place in Chicago), the Farquhars settled in New York; he was a stockbroker. The 1910 census records them living in Fulton Street with their son William aged 9 and daughter Jean aged two. It was Mrs Farquhar's pregnancy in 1900/1901 that interrupted sittings for her portrait.
In June 1901 the Farquhars wrote to Whistler and withdrew the deposit on the portrait. It was still in Whistler's studio at his death in 1903 when the Farquhars tried unsuccessfully once again to obtain it.
They travelled extensively. In 1916 for instance Mr and Mrs Farquhar arrived in Liverpool from America in the St Paul and in 1934 they travelled to Lisbon, Portugal on the Baloeran.
Bibliography:
US census; New York Passenger Lists 1820-1957, Ancestry.com; . The Peerage, website.
