Home > Catalogue > Browse > Portrait of Miss Amy Brandon Thomas << >>
Titles
Two titles have been suggested:
- 'Portrait of a Baby' (1905, ISSPG). 1
- 'Portrait of Amy Brandon-Thomas' (after 1924, W. R. Sickert). 2
- 'Portrait of Miss Amy Brandon Thomas' (1980, YMSM). 3
'Portrait of Miss Amy Brandon Thomas' is the preferred title.
Description
Portrait of Miss Amy Brandon Thomas, Whereabouts unknown
A sketch portrait of a baby with brown hair, facing the viewer, dressed in a white dress with a large collar or bib. It is in vertical format.
Sitter
Bassano Ltd, Amy Brandon Thomas, photograph, 1914, National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG x101387
Amy Marguerite Brandon Thomas (Mrs Barnes-Brand) (1890-1974) was born on 9 March 1890 and died on 6 May 1974. She was an English film and stage actress.
She was the daughter of the playwright Brandon Thomas (1849-1914), an ardent admirer of Whistler. He and his wife appear in a lithograph, The Garden c040, drawn by Whistler at Cheyne Walk in 1891.
As a baby, she was taken to sittings by Miss Missen, the family nurse. 4
According to Clifford, several months after starting this portrait Whistler asked Mrs Thomas to bring Amy for further sittings. She had been six months old when she first posed, but when she was brought again she had grown out of all recognition. Whistler told her mother he 'wanted the one he had before' and sent them both home. 5
Notes:
1: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 76).
2: Label on verso signed '... Richard Sickert A.R.A.' The 'W' is missing. He was elected ARA in 1924.
3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no 392).
4: Brandon-Thomas, Jevan, Charley's Aunt's Father: A Life of Brandon Thomas, London, 1955, p. 145.
Last updated: 16th October 2020 by Margaret
