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

 

M.0850
Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux'

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1881/1882
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number: 1933.296
Medium: pen and brown ink
Support: cream wove paper, laid down on ivory card
Size: 5 3/16 x 3 3/4" (131 x 95 mm)
Signature: two butterflies
Inscription: none

Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux'

Composition

Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux', Art Institute of Chicago
Study for 'Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux', Art Institute of Chicago
Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux, Honolulu Academy of Arts
Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux, Honolulu Academy of Arts

This is a study of for the portrait Arrangement in Black: Lady Meux [YMSM 228].

Technique

The marginal butterfly was added at the request of Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932) when he bought it in 1891.

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 850); see also Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website (cat. no. 23)..

Last updated: 11th December 2020 by Margaret