Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Harmony in Pink and Red' (ca 1878, Whistler). 1
• 'Harmony in Flesh Color & Red' (ca 1881, Whistler). 2
• 'Arrangement en couleur chair et rouge' (1904, T. Duret). 3
• 'Harmony in Pink and Red' (1980 YMSM). 4

The photograph reproduced by Théodore Duret (1838-1927) is from the collection of George Aloysius Lucas (1824-1909), now in Baltimore, and Duret's title 'Arrangement en couleur chair et rouge' is based on that inscription.

The preferred title is 'Harmony in Pink and Red'.

Description

A full length portrait of a woman seen from the back, with her head in profile to left. Her skirt is gathered into a small bustle at the back, and trails behind her, at lower right. The sleeves are close-fitting, with puffs at the shoulder. The dress is very light in colour and she stands against a dark background. The canvas is in vertical format.

There are photographs of the painting in the Library of Congress, Glasgow University Library, the S. P. Avery Collection in New York Public Library, and the G. A. Lucas collection, Baltimore Museum of Art. The photographs give the proportions for Harmony in Pink and Red [YMSM 192]. Assuming it to have been life-size, these proportions would correspond to a canvas of approximately 191 x 98 cm (75 x 38½").

Sitter

Maud Franklin (1857-ca 1941) , Whistler's mistress and chief model from the mid 1870s to 1880s.