Titles

Radical variations on the title have been suggested:

• 'Vert et violet; portrait de Mme S...' (1894, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). 1
• 'Mrs. Bernard [sic] Sickert' (1894, Society of Portrait Painters). 2
• 'Mrs. Bernard [sic] Sickert' (1895, Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts). 3
• 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs. E. Milicent Cobden' [sic] (1915, Panama-Pacific Exhibition). 4
• 'Portrait of Mrs. Cobden Sickert' (1934, Texas State Fair). 5
• 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert' (1980, YMSM). 6
• 'Green and Violet: Mrs Walter Sickert' (2015, Fogg Art Museum). 7

It is not known why it was shown as 'Mrs Bernard Sickert', in 1894-1895. Bernhard Sickert (1862-1932) was the younger brother of Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) and was not married. The sitter was Walter's wife, Ellen Mellicent Sickert (1848-1914) , whose maiden name was Cobden. 'Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert' is the preferred title.

Description

A portrait in vertical format, showing a woman seated on a sofa, facing the viewer. She wears a black dress with puffed half-length black over-sleeves over a silvery grey/blue blouse with a ruffle at the neck and long sleeves trimmed with braid. She has a pink rose or ribbon on her dress at upper right. The sofa is white, with a straight back and striped beige cover, the white-painted wooden frame decorated at the upper edge with a line and circle pattern.

Sitter

Ellen Mellicent Sickert (1848-1914) . She had posed to Whistler for Arrangement in Violet and Pink: Mrs Walter Sickert [YMSM 337] about 1885-1886.