Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Violet & Rose "La Belle du Jour" ' (1903, Whistler). 1
• 'A Nude Study' (1903, Studio). 2
• 'Belle à jour, Blue and Violet' (1905, ISSPG). 3
• 'Bleu et Violet, La Belle de Jour' (1914, Christie's). 4
• 'Violet and Rose: La Belle de Jour' (1980, YMSM). 5

'Violet and Rose: La Belle de Jour' is the preferred title.

According to Mme Marchesi, 'Belle de jour, Whistler explained to us, is a blue and violet flower, which colour scheme he took for that picture.' 6

'Belle de jour' is usually translated as a convolvulus, but Whistler probably meant specifically the Morning Glory, a blue flower of the convolvulus family. The subject, pose, and a similar title were used for a pastel on the recto of a sheet dating from the mid 1870s, r.: Morning Glories; v.: Nude study [M.0410].

Description

A figure study in vertical format. A draped figure, facing the viewer, leans back on a railing. Her left hand is raised to her chin, her right hand possibly folded over her breast but concealed by the draperies. She wears pale pink robes and a lilac cap trimmed with pale green. A lilac/pale plum drapery hangs over the railing. The background is pale turquoise.

Sitter

Unknown. According to Mme Marchesi, 'He [Whistler] told us that he wanted to paint the face a little more but the model vanished.' 7