Titles

The suggested title is:

• Portrait of Miss Nora McNay (1980, YMSM). 1

Description

A portrait of a girl.

Sitter

Eleanor ('Nora') Ruth McNay (1868-1886) . Whistler called her 'My dear little Lili Nora!' 2

Nora was born on 16 January 1868 and died in Croydon, Surrey, at the age of 18. She was the daughter of Mary Isabella and Thomas Fothergill McNay (1836-1907) of Audley Villa, Selhurst Road, South Norwood. The McNays were acquaintances of Whistler in the early 1880s.

A drawing dated 14 March 1882, showing a woman reclining on a sofa, Mrs or Miss McNay [M.0868], may actually have been of Eleanor McNay. Another pencil sketch of a young woman sleeping, La Dormeuse [M.0869], almost certainly shows her. Both suggest she was in ill health. La Dormeuse may well have been the 'tiny sketch of Nora' referred to by Whistler and was to be the basis for an oil. 3 It is by no means certain that the oil was completed, or even started, despite Whistler's willingness to attempt it.