Titles

The generally accepted title is:

• 'Head of a Young Woman' (1980, YMSM).

Description

A head and shoulders portrait of a woman with very dark curly hair, cut in a fringe, painted in vertical format. She gazes directly at the viewer. She wears a grey dress with a white collar trimmed with lace.

Sitter

The sitter was called 'Leonori' by Joseph Pennell (1860-1926), according to Sir David McAdam Eccles (1904-1999). 1

It has been suggested that 'Leonori' was a misspelling of Lenoir, although that seems unlikely. Helen Lenoir (1852-1913) (later Mrs R. D'Oyly Carte) knew Whistler well in the 1880s, helped to organise his 'Ten O'Clock' lecture and lent him money, but neither in her correspondence with Whistler nor in a letter from her to Pennell, does she mention ever being painted. 2 About 1887/1888 Whistler made an etching of her, The Fur Tippet: Miss Lenoir [365], in which her features appear longer than those in this oil portrait, and her hair much less bushy, with a shorter fringe.

The sitter has some resemblance to Lilian Woakes (1866-1843) as seen in Portrait of Miss Lilian Woakes [YMSM 393], although the dress is totally different. However, this may be due to the fashionable look of the day or to Whistler's tendency to see certain characteristics in his models.