Technique

The portrait of Montesquiou in a grey cloak was not apparently continued.

Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac, The Frick Collection

It was the 'black portrait' Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac [YMSM 398]) on which Whistler worked subsequently. However it is possible that it was painted on top of 'Impressions de gris perle' for there are traces of brushwork at the foot of Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac [YMSM 398] which could be interpreted as the folds of a cloak.

The Goncourts reported Montesquiou's account of sittings:

'Montesquiou est très intéressant à entendre développer la façon de peindre de Whistler, auquel il a donné dix-sept séances pendant un mois de séjour a Londres. L'esquisse, ce serait chez Whistler une ruée sur la toile, une ou deux heures de fièvre folle, dont sortirait tout construite dans son enveloppe la chose ... Puis alors, des séances, de longues séances, où la plupart du temps, le pinceau approché de la toile, le peintre ne posait pas la touche qu'il avait au bout de son pinceau, le jetait, ce pinceau! en prenait un autre, et quelquetois, en trois heures, posait une cinquantaine de touches sur sa toile ... chaque touche, selon l'expression, enlevant un voile à la couverte de l'esquisse. Oh ! des séances, où il semblait à Montesquiou que Whistler, avec la fixité de son attention, lui prenait sa vie, lui pompait quelque chose de son individualité; et à la fin, il se sentait tellement aspiré qu'il éprouvait comme une contraction de tout son être et qu'heureusement, il avait découvert uncertain vin au coca, qui le remettait de ces terribles séances!' 1

A (very free) translation: 'Montesquiou is very interesting to hear on the way Whistler’s painting technique has developed, after giving Whistler seventeen sittings during a month’s stay in London. The sketch, this would be a run-through of the canvas at Whistler’s home, one or two hours of mad fever, from which it would all but emerge from its enveloping surroundings … And then, the sessions, the long sessions, where most of the time, the brush approached the canvas, the painter did not touch it with the paint that was at the end of his brush, he threw it down, this brush! taking another, and a few times, in three hours, made around fifty strokes to his canvas … every stroke, according to his expression, removed a veil from the surface of the sketch. Oh! Some sessions where it seemed to Montesquiou that Whistler, with his fixed attention, took his life, removing something from his individuality; and at the end, he felt so drawn that he felt a contraction of his whole being and fortunately, he had discovered a certain wine ['vin au coca'], which helped him recover from these terrible sessions!'

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.