Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'The Red Feather' (1897, R. Birnie Philip). 1
• 'The "Red Feather" ' (1898, Whistler). 2
• 'Violet and Blue – The Red Feather' (1901, ISSPG). 3
• 'Girl with a Red Feather' (1905, ISSPG). 4
• 'A Chelsea Girl' (1921, Brooklyn Museum). 5
• 'Chelsea Girl' (1923, American Art Association). 6
• 'Violet and Blue: The Red Feather' (1980, YMSM). 7

'Violet and Blue: The Red Feather' is the preferred title, based on the 1901 exhibition catalogue, with punctuation regularised.

Description

Violet and Blue: The Red Feather, Fogg Art Museum

A head and shoulders portrait of a young woman, in vertical format. She poses full-face, her lips pouted. She has short curly brown hair, and wears a small black 'pillar box' hat adorned with a red feather. She wears a brown jacket with grey collar. The background is a greenish brown. A partial butterfly signature is visible to left of her right shoulder. The lower part of the figure, from her shoulders down, is only roughly indicated.

Sitter

Violet and Blue: The Red Feather, Fogg Art Museum

Blue and Coral: The Little Blue Bonnet, Los Angeles County Museum of Art

Probably Muriel Smith (1883-1923), an art student, who posed for several portraits including Blue and Coral: The Little Blue Bonnet [YMSM 500] in August 1897, and Grey and Silver: La Petite Souris [YMSM 502].