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

 

Little Juniper Bud - Lizzie Willis

Little Juniper Bud – Lizzie Willis was painted after 1896 in Whistler's studio at 8 Fitzroy Street, London, where the sitter's mother was Whistler's housekeeper from 1896-1897. The source of this date was Harold Wright (1885-1961), probably recording information from the artist's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) . 1


                Little Juniper Bud – Lizzie Willis, The Hunterian
Little Juniper Bud – Lizzie Willis, The Hunterian

In 1899 Whistler told Miss Birnie Philip to ask the Goupil Gallery in London to send two portraits of Lizzie to him in Paris, 'you had better send over the little Lizzie - there are two - the old black one, and a rather fair one barely begun.' 2 However, it is not known if he worked on it further.

Notes:

1: Note on verso of painting. YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 475).

2: [13/15 December 1899], GUW #04764.

Last updated: 2nd November 2020 by Margaret