Ada Maud Jarvis
Birthname: Ada Maud Vesey-Dawson
Nationality: English
Date of birth: 1850
Place of birth: London
Date of death: 23 July 1919
Category: collector
Identity:
Ada Maud Jarvis was the daughter of an Irish barrister. In October 1876 she married the brewer and collector Lewis Page Jarvis. Together they had seven sons and several daughters. Mrs Jarvis died shortly after five of her sons were killed in the first World War.
Life:
According to Houfe, Whistler borrowed £50 from Lewis Jarvis in the summer of 1879 and agreed to paint the portrait of his wife, Ada. The portrait was started in the late summer and Whistler visited them at their country house at Blunham near Bedford in autumn 1879. Portrait of Mrs Lewis Jarvis y206 was completed, framed and sent to the sitter in September 1879. Whistler wrote to her, 'The little head ought to have been far away more charming - but I did my best at the time which I am afraid was very poor' (#09170).
Bibliography:
Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .
'REMEBRANCE', website, and 'Jarvis Brothers', IWM website.
