Composition

Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs, photograph, GUL Whistler PH4/26

Harmony in Crimson and Brown, Private collection

Sketch of "Harmony in Crimson and Brown", Colby College Museum of Art

The first drawing of the composition, Harmony in Crimson and Brown [M.0853], dating from about 1881, matches the composition of the portrait as shown in the undated photograph of it. The later drawing, Sketch of 'Harmony in Crimson and Brown' [M.0993], dating from 1884, shows a slightly different costume, suggesting a jacket over a dress rather than a full length fur cloak.

Technique

Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs, photograph, GUL Whistler PH4/26

It appears to have been thinly and evenly painted, but it is difficult to judge from the sole photograph.

'A caricature of Whistler painting simultaneously his three portraits of Lady Meux', by Charles Hallam Elton Brookfield (1857-1913), was published in The Graphic, 25 March 1911; his illustration of Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs was based on Whistler's drawing Sketch of 'Harmony in Crimson and Brown' [M.0993], which was then owned by Walter Dowdeswell (1858-1929). 1

Conservation History

Unknown. It was probably destroyed.

Frame

Unknown.