Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Lewis Page Jarvis

Nationality: English
Date of birth: 1845
Date of death: June 1900
Category: collector

Identity:

Lewis Page Jarvis was a brewer and collector. In October 1876 he married Ada Maud Vesey-Dawson, the daughter of an Irish barrister. Together they had seven sons and several daughters. He died of pleurisy.

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 Ada in September 1879 (#09170).

Bibliography:

Houfe, Simon, 'Whistler in the Country: His Unrecorded Friendship with Lewis Jarvis,' Apollo, vol. 98, no. 140, October 1973, pp. 282-285; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 .