Composition

A preparatory drawing for this work can be found on the verso of Whistler's panel Violet and Rose: La Belle de Jour [YMSM 319] in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.

According to Soros, the portrait 'greatly resembles a drawing in one of Godwin's sketchbooks.' 1 Drawings for the costumes by Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) are in the Victoria and Albert Museum. 2

Technique

It is on a small, 2 mm thick, wooden panel, primed in dark grey. It is painted in vertical format with the grain running vertically. 3 The paint was thinned, possibly without any added medium, and was applied freely with a small brush, about 6.4 mm (¼") wide for the landscape. The brushstrokes stop short of the edge. The white blossoms behind the figure were painted with a smaller brush, possibly in a chalk or barium sulphate medium (not zinc or lead white).

The model was originally standing with her feet nearer together, and her left foot near the centre of the panel. Her face was painted with thin paint and barely tinted with colour, the features being defined with a tiny pointed brush in unusual detail. The lacing on Lady Archie's bodice was not painted but scraped out, possibly with the pointed end of a brush.

Conservation History

There is a vertical scratch at left, and some fine craquelure. 4

The panel has a split vertically up the centre, and minor paint loss occurred along this split. The panel was adhered to an auxiliary support of hardboard in order to stabilise the vertical crack, which occurred in 1969 when it was on exhibition; the auxiliary support was applied for the Hunterian by a private restorer, Harry Woolford. A sliver of support has been lost at the upper right corner, since the auxiliary support was added, and after a glossy non-original varnish – now yellowed – was applied overall, running over the sides of the panel. 5

Frame

A Grau-style frame, dating from ca 1892. 6 Size, 42.2 x 36.4 x 6.0 cm.