Titles

The title evolved gradually, as follows:

• 'Die Lange Lizen – of the six marks' (1864, Royal Academy of Arts). 1
• 'ma Chinoise' (1865, Whistler). 2
• 'The Lange Lize' [sic] (1878, Whistler). 3
• 'The Lange Lize [sic] of Six Marks' (1881, Whistler). 4
• 'The Lange Leizen – of the six marks. Purple and Rose' (1892, Goupil). 5
• 'The Lange Leize of the Six Marks' (1894, Whistler). 6
• 'Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks' (1980, YMSM). 7

The title Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks is based on Whistler's 1892 title, regularised to conform with other titles.

In 1878 it was listed rather inaccurately by James Anderson Rose (1819-1890), when he was preparing a brief for the Whistler v. Ruskin trial, as 'Lange Lisen who pose in the [tall?] jars of China & Japan'. 8 The 1980 catalogue explained:

' "Lange Lijzen" is Dutch for "long Elizas" and was the Delft name for the blue and white Chinese porcelain decorated with figures of "long ladies". The "Six Marks" were the potter's marks, giving the signature and date, on the bottom of the vases. One of Whistler's own "lange lijzen" jars of the K'ang Hs'I Dynasty (1662-1722) appears in the painting and the 'Six Marks' decorate the roundels on the frame he designed for it.' 9

Description

Whistler's mother's description of the painting when it was still under construction is interesting:

'A girl seated as if intent upon painting a beautiful jar which she rests on her lap, a quiet & easy attitude, she sits beside a shelf which is covered with Chinese Matting a buff color, upon which several pieces of China & a pretty fan are arranged as if for purchasers, a Scind Rug carpets the floor ... upon it by her side is a large jar & all these are fac-similes of those around me in this room ... there is a table covd with a crimson cloth, on which there is a cup (Japanese) scarlet in hue, a sofa covd with buff matting.' 10

It is a figure composition in vertical format, showing a young woman seated, leaning back and facing three-quarter left, looking down at her work. She has dark hair, arranged in a large bun on top of her head, and adorned with a red kanzashi (hair ornament.) 11 She wears a very long narrow patterned navy scarf over a cream robe with wide sleeves, richly embroidered with flowers. Under this is a black dress also embroidered with flowers, leaves and scrolls. The sleeves end in a broad band of luminous orangey-pink, trimmed with black and white. Her left hand holds a large blue and white jar, and her right hand (covered by the pink edging of the sleeve) is raised, holding a pencil-like brush with orangey-red handle.

Behind her is a wooden cabinet at left, and table at right. On the cabinet is blue and white porcelain – a cup and saucer at left, a small jar decorated with hyacinths, a large bowl decorated with fish, and, in front of the latter, a large covered jar with a figurative design. Behind the cup and jar is a black fan decorated with a heron, and behind that, a black tray.

The jar she holds is decorated with figures of women in an interior. On the table to right is a dark blue jar, several brushes, a book with a grey patterned cover, and a red bowl or cup with a cover. On the floor at lower right is a large covered blue and white pot. Her scarf trails right down onto the carpet at right. The carpet is richly coloured and patterned in beige, browns and reds. The scene is lit from the right, casting shadows to left, and with the upper right corner deeply shadowed. There, an orange scroll bears the signature and date written vertically.

Site

Whistler's sitting room cum studio in 7 Lindsey Row, Chelsea, London.

Sitter

Joanna Hiffernan (b. ca 1843-d.1886) . She was described by Whistler's mother as 'a fair damsel.' 12

This is the first of several specifically Asian subjects, which include La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine [YMSM 050], Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony [YMSM 056], and Caprice in Purple and Gold: The Golden Screen [YMSM 060]. Joanna Hiffernan also posed for the latter.