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

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YMSM 135
Study for 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle'

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1872/1873
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number: 1956.763
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 28.6 x 21.0 cm (11 1/4 x 8 1/4")
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: none
Frame: Flat Whistler, American, ca 2000

Study for 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle'

Titles

  • 'Study for the Portrait of Thomas Carlyle' (1963, Minneapolis Institute of Art). 1
  • "Study for 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle' " (1980, YMSM). 2

The descriptive title Study for 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle' has only occasionally been abbreviated to 'Study for the Portrait of Thomas Carlyle'. The full title is the preferred one.

Description

Study for 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle', Art Institute of Chicago
Study for 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle', Art Institute of Chicago

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 him, above the black dado.

Site

Whistler's studio in Lindsey Row, Chelsea, London.

Sitter

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881).

Notes:

1: Exhibition catalogue Minneapolis 1963 [more] .

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 135).

Last updated: 3rd December 2020 by Margaret