Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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YMSM 405
Portrait Study of a Man

Artist: Formerly attributed to James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1890/1900
Collection: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK
Accession Number: PD.29-1970
Medium: oil
Support: wood
Size: 16.8 x 10.2 cm (6 5/8 x 4")
Signature: none
Inscription: none
Frame: Simple flat Whistler
print

Portrait Study of a Man

Titles

Only one title is known:

  • 'Portrait study of a man' (1948, exhibition, Cheyne Walk). 1
  • 'Portrait Study of a Man' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

Portrait Study of a Man, the Fitzwilliam
Portrait Study of a Man, the Fitzwilliam

A three-quarter length study of a man in three-quarter view to right, painted in vertical format. He wears a dark overcoat and pale trousers. He has short brown hair and a moustache. The study is unfinished.

Sitter

Roland, Browse & Delbanco considered this to be a portrait of the painter William Stott (1857-1900), which would indicate a date before Whistler's quarrel with him in 1888. This identification has been controverted by Goodison. 3

Notes:

1: Whistleriana: Exhibition arranged on behalf of Journal S.W. 3, 96 Cheyne Walk, London, 1948 (cat. no. 63).

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 405).

3: Goodison 1977 [more], pp. 280-81.

Last updated: 22nd October 2020 by Margaret