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Composition
According to the Pennells, A. J. Cassatt suggested Lois Cassatt pose in riding habit, although she would have preferred evening dress. 1 However, the decision was Whistler's, as Mrs Cassatt wrote in her diary on 4 April 1884:
'he [Whistler] decided in favor of the riding habit, much to my disappointment, … but Aleck likes it.' 2
Study for 'Portrait of Miss May Alexander', British Museum, London
Whistler had proposed a similar composition for a portrait of young Agnes Mary ('May') Alexander (1862-1950), as is seen in the Study for 'Portrait of Miss May Alexander' [M.0498] reproduced above.
Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland', British Museum, London
Mrs Cassatt's riding dress is similar to that in a missing oil, Portrait of Miss Leyland (1) [YMSM 109], which is known from a drawing, Study for 'Portrait of Miss Leyland' [M.0502], illustrated above. 3
Technique
Arrangement in Black, No. 8: Portrait of Mrs Cassatt, private collection
It is thinly painted and shows signs of rubbing down and alterations.
Conservation History
Arrangement in Black, No. 8: Portrait of Mrs Cassatt, photograph
Photographs suggest that the face has been rubbed down, although the picture appears to be in a stable condition.
Frame
W. Sickert, 'An Arrangement in Black', Pall Mall Gazette, 8 December 1885
Frame with panels decorated with a fish-scale pattern on three sides, and signed with a butterfly. Sickert's drawing gives a rough impression of the signed frame in 1885.
Whistler Memorial Exhibition, Boston 1904, photograph, GUL PH6/005
A 1904 photograph shows the picture in its frame.
Notes:
1: Pennell, E. R. and J., The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 6th edition, revised, Philadelphia 1920, p. 257.
2: Extracts from Diary of Lois Buchanan Cassatt, sent by Pauline T. Maguire, CASVA, Washington DC, to WPP.
3: The Pennells mistakenly identified this drawing as for the portrait of Mrs Cassatt: Pennell 1921C [more], f.p. 136.
Last updated: 28th May 2021 by Margaret
