Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Symphony in White and Red' (1903, R. Birnie Philip) 1
• 'Symphony in White and Red' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). 2
• 'No. 4 Symphony in White and Red' (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). 3
• 'Symphony in White and Red' (1980, YMSM). 4

The White Symphony: Three Girls [YMSM 087] had been exhibited with the title 'Symphony in White and Red' in 1874 and 1887-1888) but this has been altered to avoid confusion.

'Symphony in White and Red' is the preferred title.

Description

A figure composition in horizontal format. Several woman in draped robes stand or sit on a balcony beside the sea. Two or three figures at left, ascending the steps, are indicated very roughly indeed. The central figure, descending the steps, wears a white robe and a pale mauve or blue scarf that blows upwards to the left, behind her; she has a pale purple head-band round her light brown hair. Just to right of centre, a seated woman in a pink robe holds up a red fan. In the lower right foreground there is another figure, sitting on the ground, very roughly indicated.

Sitter

Unidentified.