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

 

M.1275
Black and Red: The Egyptian

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1890/1892
Collection: The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
Accession Number: GLAHA 46151
Medium: chalk and pastel
Support: brown wove paper laid down on card
Size: 10 7/8 x 7 1/8" (276 x 181 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: r.: 'o' and v.: 'Black and Red' in Beatrice Whistler's hand

Black and Red: The Egyptian

Composition

Black and Red: The Egyptian, The Hunterian
Black and Red: The Egyptian, The Hunterian

The two figures commisioned by Henry Cole (1808-1882) in 1872 for arches in South Kensington Museum were: 'a Japanese art worker' and 'Neath, the Egyptian Goddess of the Spindle'. 1 Net (or Neith) was a virgin goddess, self-begotten, mother of the gods, usually shown with bow and arrows or a distaff. For the 'Japanese art worker' Whistler drew models in kimonos (r.: A Japanese Woman; v.: Girl with parasol [M.0458], Japanese lady decorating a fan [M.0460]). He never completed the commission but years later made this, the only extant drawing with Egyptian associations.

Technique

Black and Red: The Egyptian, The Hunterian
Black and Red: The Egyptian, The Hunterian

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1275).

Notes:

1: 20 March 1872, GUW #05518.

Last updated: 5th June 2021 by Margaret