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

 

YMSM 206
Portrait of Mrs Lewis Jarvis

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1879
Collection: Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
Accession Number: SC 1908:2-1
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 63.2 x 40.3 cm (24 7/8 x 15 7/8")
Signature: none
Inscription: none

Portrait of Mrs Lewis Jarvis

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

  • 'Portrait of Mrs. Louis Jarvis' (1905, ISSPG). 1
  • 'Portrait of Mrs Lewis Jarvis' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

Portrait of Mrs Lewis Jarvis, Smith College Museum of Art
Portrait of Mrs Lewis Jarvis, Smith College Museum of Art

A head and shoulders portrait of a woman, in vertical format. She is facing the viewer. She has a dark, high-necked dress with a ruffle, and a small white frilly cravat trimmed round her neck with a narrow red ribbon. She has reddish brown hair and a small fringe.

Sitter

Mr and Mrs Jarvis and their daughter Olivia, photograph, ca 1898
Mr and Mrs Jarvis and their daughter Olivia, photograph, ca 1898

Ada Maud Jarvis (1850-1919) , née Ada Maud Vesey-Dawson, was the daughter of an Irish barrister. She married Lewis Page Jarvis (1845-1900) , a brewer, in October 1876. She died on 23 July 1919.

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. 65).

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 206).

Last updated: 21st October 2020 by Margaret