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Several possible titles have been suggested:
Although 'May' was her nickname, not her actual name, the original title, 'Miss May Alexander', is preferred.
The portrait of a young woman in three-quarter view to left, in vertical format. She wears a grey dress and black hat with a round, medium-broad, brim. Her hands are raised to her chest, as she pulls on gloves. Behind her is a grey wall and black dado. At left, behind her, is a round pot full of small yellow flowers.
A detailed description published in 1898 reads as follows:
'It is a full length. The graceful figure in grey is set against a grey wall, marvellously cool and tender and silvery in tone. The face is pale and delicate, the modelling as restrained as in the better-known Miss Alexander. The long, full skirts hang close about the feet, which they hide. One hand is held up slightly, while the other fastens the grey glove at the wrist. In the left-hand corner is a jar full of a pale golden flower, and little golden lights gleam here and there through the matting, around which runs a simple design in red outline - a harmony in grey and gold.' 6
Whistler wrote to the sitter's mother, Rachel Agnes Lucas (Mrs W. C. Alexander) (1837-1900), and proposed moving in to the Alexander's house, Aubrey House in Kensington, in order to paint the picture in situ:
'[I]t occurs to me that if you like I will paint May in your own house - I think I should like this if you do not fear that I should be in the way - The new drawing room with its white and black wainscot is what I think of - it would be so delightful to be able to hang the picture up every now and then and see how it would look in its own proper place!' 7
W. C. Alexander (quoted by Cary) confirms that it was painted in the newly decorated dining room at Aubrey House, where the portrait was intended to hang. 8
Whistler designed an interior scheme for the Alexanders (seeDesigns for the arrangement of china in the dining room at Aubrey House [M.0487], r.: Colour schemes for the decoration of Aubrey House; v.: Head and shoulders of a nude [M.0492], etc. 9
Agnes Mary ('May') Alexander (1862-1950).
Agnes Mary, the eldest of Rachel and W. C. Alexander's daughters, was born in November 1862. Her sister Cicely was also painted by Whistler (Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander [YMSM 129].
1: 8th exhibition, Society of Portrait Painters, London, 1898 (cat. no. 5).
2: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 19).
3: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 109).
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 127).
5: Tate Britain website at http://www.tate.org.uk.
6: Anon., 'The Grafton Gallery', 22 October 1898, unidentified press cutting (GUL Whistler PC17, p. 69).
7: [August/December 1872], GUW #07572. See also Pennell 1908 [more] , vol. 1, p. 175.
8: Cary 1907[more] (cat. no. 190).
9: See also Gladstone, Florence M., Aubrey House, Kensington, 1698-1920, London, 1922, pp. 5, 33, 54, and reproduction of interiors, f. p. 32.
Last updated: 31st December 2020 by Margaret