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Titles
The suggested titles are as follows:
- ‘L’Enfant’ (1902, Drouot). 1
- ‘Portrait of a Baby’ (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). 2
- 'Portrait of a baby' (1980, YMSM). 3
'Portrait of a baby' is the preferred title.
Description
Portrait of a Baby, Private Collection
An unfinished sketch of a baby in a white dress looking straight at the viewer, against a dark background. The portrait is in vertical format.
Sitter
Mrs Vanderbilt and baby Cornelia, photograph, Biltmore
This may be a portrait of Cornelia Vanderbilt (1900-1976), born 22 August 1900, the daughter of George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914) and his wife Edith Stuyvesant Dresser (1873–1958). Cornelia would have been twenty months old in April 1902, when the Vanderbilts were in Paris, which would suit the age of the child in the portrait. However, although a possible commission had been suggested by her father, there is no mention of this actually being painted at the time. 4
Notes:
1: Strauss Sale, Paris, Hotel Drouot, 3 May 1902 (lot 71).
2: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 45).
3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat no. 549).
4: G. W. Vanderbilt to Whistler, 13 January 1902, GUW #05925. Sexton, Jean, 'Happy Birthday, Cornelia Vanderbilt', Open House: The Official Blog of Biltmore, 6 August 2014, Biltmore, at http://www.biltmore.com/Blog/article/happy-birthday-cornelia-vanderbilt (acc. 2014).
Last updated: 19th October 2020 by Margaret
