Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Master Menpes' (n.d., anon.). 1
• 'Master Menpes' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

Master Menpes, whereabouts unknown, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

The portrait of a boy in vertical format. He is dressed up as a dandy of the Napoleonic or Directoire period. He has a high crowned black hat over his shoulder length blonde curly hair. He wears a close-fitting suit with a ruff at the neck, frills at the wrist, and bunches of ribbons at the top of long boots or knee length stockings. He faces the viewer, with his left hand extended as if holding a cane, his right hand on hip, and his legs apart, his left leg pointing outwards.

It is known to the compilers only from a photograph, but appears to have been authentic; the original may have been destroyed. The size of the photograph, 22.4 x 13.4 cm (8 7/8 x 5 ¼") gives the proportions of the painting (though not the size), and although not absolutely clear, the support appears to have been canvas.

Sitter

This portrait probably shows Mortimer James Menpes ( 1879-1900), the son of Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) and Rosa Mary Menpes (1855-1936). They had seven daughters and three sons, including Maud Rose Goodwin (1878-1958), Mortimer James (1879-1900), Dorothy Whistler (1883-1973), Walter (1886-1945), and Claude (1892-1963).

Master Menpes, whereabouts unknown

Whistler also painted a watercolour, Master Menpes [M.1017] where he appears as a golden haired toddler in a wide skirt and red hat.

Several children appear in an 1887 etching by Whistler, The Menpes Children [300], which probably includes Maud and Dorothy, and just possibly the Menpes' fourth child, Walter, born on 21 September 1886, but not their older son, Mortimer James Menpes.

Dorothy married Ivan Charles Flower and had two children, Pamela (d.1969) and Richard Herbert Gordon Menpes Flower (1910-1979). Walter married Joan, and they had one son, Michael Mortimer Menpes; both parents died in 1945, and Michael, ca 1994. Claude married Winifred Kate (d. 1972) who inherited the collection of Menpes' works, which went to a gallery in Reading, UK.