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

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Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl

Catalogues Raisonnés

  • Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 52), plates 31, 371, as 'Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl'.

Authored by Whistler

  • Goupil Gallery and James McNeill Whistler, Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces [portfolio of photographs published after the Goupil Gallery Exhibition, March-April 1892], London, 1892, repr. pl. 9.
  • Whistler, James McNeill, 'Latest Bulletin From Mr Whistler', The Morning Post, London, 6 August 1902.

Catalogues 1855-1905

  • The Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts. MDCCCLXV. The Ninety-Seventh, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1865 (cat. no. 530) as 'The Little White Girl'.
  • London International Exhibition: The second of a series held under the direction of Her Majesty’s Commissioners for the Exhibition of 1851. Official catalogue: Fine Arts Department, London, 1872 (cat. no. 260) as 'The White Girl'.
  • [Whistler, James McNeill, and Goupil Gallery (eds)], Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces: Small Collection Kindly Lent by Their Owners, London, 1892 (cat. no. 33) as 'Symphony in White No. II. The Little White Girl'.
  • Illustrierter Katalog der VI. Internationalen Kunst-Ausstellung 1892 im Kgl. Glaspalaste, Munich, 1892 (cat. no. 1950a) as 'Das kleine weisse Mädchen'.
  • Société royale d'encouragement des beaux-arts (ed.), Exposition Universelle des Beaux-Arts, 1894: Catalogue Général Illustré, Antwerp, 1894 (cat. no. 2369) as 'Symphonie en blanc n° 2; petite fille en blanc'.
  • Prima esposizione internazionale d'arte della città di Venezia 1895: catalogo illustrato, Venice, 1895 (cat. no. 363).
  • Allmänna konst- och industriutställningen, Stockholm, 1897, as 'Flicka i hvitt'.
  • Exposition Universelle, Grand Palais, Paris, 1900 (cat. no. 76 in American section).
  • 76th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, Edinburgh, 1902 (cat. no. 240).
  • Copley Society (ed.), Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels & Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 28) as 'Symphony in White. "The Little White Girl" '.
  • Exposition des œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l’École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 5) as 'Symphonie en blanc No 2. "La petite fille blanche".- Symphony in White No 2. The Little White Girl'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

  • Anon., [Taylor, Thomas], 'The Exhibition of the Royal Academy. Second Notice, The Times, London, 8 May 1865, p. 8.
  • Anon., 'Royal Academy Exhibition: Middle Room', Daily Telegraph, London, 11 May 1865, p. 5.
  • Anon., 'Royal Academy Exhibition: North Room', Daily Telegraph, London, 16 May 1865, p. 3.
  • Anon., 'Royal Academy', Daily Telegraph, London, 22 May 1865.
  • Anon., [Taylor, Thomas], 'The Exhibition of the Royal Academy. Fourth Notice, The Times, London, 24 May 1865, p. 6.
  • Anon., 'Fine Arts', llustrated Times, London, 27 May 1865, p. 11.
  • Anon., [Taylor, Thomas], 'The International Exhibition. British Oil Paintings', The Times, London, 14 May 1872, p. 6.
  • Anon, 'The International Exhibition of 1872', Sheffield Daily Telegraph, Sheffield, 30 April 1872, p. 7.
  • Anon., 'Some More Noteworthy Paintings', Norwich Mercury, Norwich, 1 June 1872, p. 6.
  • Anon., Glasgow Herald, Glasgow, 9 November 1893.
  • Anon., Morning Post, London, 1 September 1895.
  • 'Scandinavia’s Fair', The Chicago Daily Inter Ocean, 5 September 1897, p. 35.
  • Spielmann, M. H., 'An Artistic Causerie', Daily Chronicle, 6 October 1900.
  • Anon., 'Art and Literature', Mid Sussex Times, 4 March 1902, p. 6.

Journals 1855-1905

  • Anon., 'Punch's Advice to Ladies', Punch, vol. 44, 21 February 1863, p. 73.
  • Anon., 'Fine Arts: The Royal Academy', The London Review, 27 May 1865, p. 564.
  • Anon., [F. T. Palgrave], ‘The Royal Academy Exhibition (Third Notice)’, The Saturday Review, vol. 19, 3 June 1865, pp. 665-67.
  • Rossetti, William Michael, 'The Royal Academy Exhibition', Fraser's Magazine, June 1865.
  • Burty, Philippe, 'Exposition de la Royal Academy', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 18, June 1865, pp. 553-65, at p. 561.
  • Sickert, Walter Richard, 'Whistler To-day', The Fortnightly Review, vol. 57, new series, vol. 51, April 1892, pp. 543-47, at pp. 543, 546-47.
  • Anon. [= Charles Whibley], 'Art and Mr Whistler', The Art Journal, vol. 46, no. 120, December 1894, pp. 358-60, repr. p. 359.
  • Muther, Richard Geschichte der Malerei im XIX Jahrhundert, 3 vols, Munich, 1893-1894 ('Whistler und die Schotten', vol. 3, chap. 48, pp. 522-37), vol. 3, repr. p. 529.
  • Anon. [= Charles Whibley], 'Art and Mr Whistler', The Art Journal, vol. 46, no. 120, December 1894, pp. 358-60, at p. 358, repr. p. 359.
  • Leclerq, Julien, 'La peinture a l’exposition de Stockholm', La Chronique des Arts et de la Curisoité, 16 October 1897, p. 310.
  • Anon., ‘Дж. УистлерЪ [Dzh. Uistler]’, Мир искусства [Mir Iskusstva, 'World of Art'], vol. 9, 1903, pp. 61-68, repr. p. 62.
  • 'T', 'The White Girl', The Art Journal, special number on the Paris Exhibition, Part 6, October 1900, p. 166 and frontispiece, repr.
  • Alexandre, Arsène, 'J. McNeill Whistler', Les Arts, October 1903, pp. 22-32, repr. p. 28.
  • Bénédite, Léonce, 'Artistes Contemporains: Whistler', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 33, 1905, pp. 403-10, 496-511; vol. 34, 1905, pp. 142-58, 231-46, in vol. 34, at pp. 152-53.

Monographs

  • None.

Books on Whistler

  • Anderson, Ronald, and Ann Koval, James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth, London, 1994, pp. 149-59, 353, 374, 390, 443.
  • Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907 (cat. no. 28).
  • Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, 30, 76, 194, 196, 251, 312, 314, 392 n. 9, 425 n. 150, 426 n 151.
  • Duret, Théodore, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son oeuvre, Paris, 1904, pp. 28, 30-31, 205.
  • Fleming, Gordon, The Young Whistler 1834-66, London, Boston, Sydney, 1978, pp. 206, 220-22.
  • de Montfort, Patricia, 'White Muslin: Joanna Hiffernan and the 1860s', in: MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 77-91, at pp. 86-90, figs. 82, 86; dress from Museum of the City of New York (47.83.1ab), ca 1864, fig. 85; see also pp. 44, 77-80, 95, 115, 220.
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Joanna Hiffernan and James Whistler: an Artistic Partnership' in Margaret F. MacDonald (ed.), The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and Washington, 2020, pp. 15-31.
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., Joanna Dunn, and Joyce H. Townsend, 'Painting Joanna Hiffernan', in Margaret F. MacDonald (ed.), The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and Washington, 2020, pp. 33-45.
  • Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007, chapter 3, pp. 94-105, online.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 127-30, 144, 147, 178; vol. 2, pp. 251, 261-62, 280.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, repr. f.p.124 in its original frame.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 191, 200, 300, room repr. f.p. 152.
  • Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 7, 60, 82, 84, 88, 94-96, 99, 100-04 (repr. p. 100), 172, 213, 486, 510, 542, 545, 617, 619, 659, 695.
  • Petri, Grischka, 'The “Symphonies in White”: Display, Sale, and Reproduction', in Margaret F. MacDonald (ed.), The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and Washington, 2020, pp. 167-176.
  • Ribeiro, Aileen, 'Fashioning White in the Work of Whistler and his Contemporaries' in Margaret F. MacDonald (ed.), The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and Washington, 2020, pp. 157-166.
  • Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 24).
  • Singletary, Suzanne M., James McNeill Whistler and France: A Dialogue in Paint, Poetry, and Music, London and New York, 2017, pp. 60, 65, 82, repr. pl. 21.
  • Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, pp. 63-65, 76-78, 279, 291-92.
  • Spencer, Robin, Whistler, New York, 1990, pp. 60-61.
  • Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. 89-91, 102, 122, 127, 256-57, 275, 285, 319, 408 n.27.
  • Sutton, Denys, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolours, London, 1966, p.185, repr. frontispiece.
  • Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, pp. 39-40.
  • Young, Andrew McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Milan, 1963, pp. 5, 7.

Books, General

  • Colbert, Charles, Haunted Visions. Spiritualism and American Art, Philadelphia, 2011, pp. 127-30 (repr. p. 128).
  • Cox, Kenyon, Old Masters and New Essays in Art Criticism, New York, 1905, pp. 236, 238-39.
  • Hobson, George Douglas, Some Thoughts on the Organisation of Art after the War, London, 1946, p. 171.
  • Lang, Cecil Y. (ed.), The Swinburne Letters, 6 vols, New Haven, 1959-1962, vol. 1, p. 120.
  • Laver, James, A History of British and American Etching, London, 1929, repr. Millais, Before the Mirror.
  • Pyne, Kathleen A., Art and the Higher Life: Painting and Evolutionary Thought in Late Nineteenth-Century America, Austin, TX, 2010, figs. 3.4-5 (Millais, repr. from Laver 1929).
  • Moore, George, Modern Painting, London, 1893, pp. 19-21.
  • Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 110, 169-70, 182, repr. p. 170.
  • Pyne, Kathleen A., Art and the Higher Life: Painting and Evolutionary Thought in Late Nineteenth-Century America, Austin, TX, 2010, pp. 44-47, 103, 179.
  • Rossetti, William Michael, Fine Art, Chiefly Contemporary: Notices Reprinted, with Revisions, London and Cambridge, 1867, pp. 274-75.
  • Swinburne, Algernon Charles, Poems and Ballads, London, 1866, pp. 149-52.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITIONS:

  • Aquarellen, Pastels, Teekingen, Etsen, Lithographien en een Schilderij door James McNeill Whistler, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1906 (cat. no. 1).
  • Paintings in oil and pastel by James McNeill Whistler, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1910 (cat. no. 6).
  • Loan Collection of Works by James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, 1912 (cat. no. 18).
  • American Painting, Tate Gallery, London, 1946 (cat. no. 233).
  • New English Art Club, City Art Gallery, Birmingham, 1952 (cat. no. 120).
  • Sweet, Frederick A. (ed.), Sargent, Whistler and Mary Cassatt, Art Institute of Chicago and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1954 (cat. no. 96)
  • Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 12).
  • Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995, pp. 78-80 (cat. no. 15), repr. p. 79.
  • Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006 (cat. no. 3) repr. p. 30.
  • Wilton, Andrew, and Robert Upstone (eds), The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910, Tate Gallery, London, 1997, pp. 116-17 (cat. no. 15), repr. p. 116.
  • Calloway, Stephen, and Lynn Federle Orr (eds), The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011, pp. 51, 87, 98, 159, repr. pp. 62-63 and 86, photograph of framed picture repr. p. 50.
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Whistler and the Thames', in: Margaret F. MacDonald and Patricia de Montfort, An American in London: Whistler and the Thames, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, 2013, pp. 13-29, at pp. 22-24, figs. 15, 18, 19 (cat. no. 30); fan by Hiroshige (cat. no. 80).
  • Ayako Ono, ホイッスラー展. James McNeill Whistler Retrospective, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyōto, 2014, and Yokohama Museum of Art, 2014–2015 (cat. no. 96).
  • Beyond the Mirror, Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon, 2018.

Journals 1906-Present

  • Arscott, Caroline,'Whistler and Whiteness', in Charlotte Ribeyrol (ed.), The Colours of the Past in Victorian England, in J. B. Bullen (ed.), Cultural Interactions. Studies in the Relationship between the Arts, vol. 38, Oxford, 2019, pp. 47-69.
  • Sutton, Denys, ‘A Whistler Exhibition’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 102, October 1960, pp. 460-61.
  • Newall, Christopher, 'Themes of Love and Death in Aesthetic Painting of the 1860s', in: Wilton, Andrew, and Robert Upstone (eds), The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones and Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp. 35-46, at pp. 39-40.
  • Stone, Elizabeth Doe, ‘American Art at the 1897 Stockholm Exhibition’, Konsthistorisk tidskrift/Journal of Art History, 2020; DOI: 10.1080/00233609.2020.1848913.

Websites

  • Tate Britain website at http://www.tate.org.uk.
  • Maas Gallery, London, 2016, website at http://www.maasgallery.co.uk.
  • Gulbenkian website at https://gulbenkian.pt.

Unpublished

  • Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 32) 'The little white girl: Symphony in White No: 2'.

Other

  • Från Konsthallen. Afbildningar af 120 konstverk från 1897-års internationella konstutställning i Stockholm. Jemte biografiska notiser om de i arbetet företrädda konstnärerna, Nordin & Josephsons Förlag, Stockholm, 1897.
  • Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.

Last updated: 7th June 2021 by Margaret