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

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YMSM 134
Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2)

Artist: J. McN. Whistler, possibly reworked by Walter Greaves
Date: 1872/1873
Collection: Whereabouts unknown
Accession Number: none
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 37 x 22.5 cm (14 1/2 x 8 7/8")
Signature: none
Inscription: none
Frame: unknown

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2)

Titles

  • 'Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2)' (1980, YMSM). 1

The numbering of the preferred title, 'Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2)', was given to distinguish it from Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (1) [YMSM 133].

Description

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2), private collection
Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2), private collection

A portrait in vertical format, showing an elderly man sitting in profile to left. He has grey hair and a grey beard. He wears a black greatcoat and balances a black hat on his knee. There are framed pictures on the grey wall behind and to left of him, above the black dado.

Site

Whistler's studio in Lindsey Row, Chelsea.

Sitter

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881).

Comments

Like Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (1) [YMSM 133], this sketch for the portrait of Thomas Carlyle (Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle [YMSM 137]) may be partly from the hand of Walter Greaves (1846-1930). It may have been started by Whistler but the head is not like his usual work.

Notes:

1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 134).

Last updated: 13th May 2021 by Margaret