Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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The Little Red Glove

Titles

Only one title have been suggested:

  • ' "The Lilly" including the "Little Red Glove" ' (1902, C. L. Freer). 1
  • 'The Little Red Glove' (1902, Whistler). 2
  • 'The Little Red Glove' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). 3
  • 'The Little Red Glove' (1980, YMSM). 4

Description


                    The Little Red Glove, Freer Gallery of Art
The Little Red Glove, Freer Gallery of Art

A half-length portrait of a girl, in vertical format. She is turned very slightly to the left (her right). She wears a white blouse, and sits with her arms crossed. Her left hand, wearing a light red glove, clasps her right upper arm. Several strands of a red coral bead necklace are round her neck, under the high frilled neck of the blouse. She has a fringe and shoulder-length red hair, and wears a russet red cap, all set against a similar red background.

Sitter

Lilian ('Lily') Pamington (b. 1887/1888) . Whistler painted several portraits of Lillie Pamington, starting in 1898 or 1899. This is by far the lightest in tone and brightest in colour: see, for instance, Brown and Gold: Lillie 'In our Alley!' [YMSM 464], and Girl in Black [YMSM 470].

Comments

David Curry makes the comparison of this portrait with a drawing by Albrecht Durer (1471-1528), Self-portrait at 13 (1584, Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna). 5 A photograph of this came with Whistler's estate to the University of Glasgow, but the source and date of the photograph is not absolutely certain. 6 The photographs in the Whistler collection came to the University from Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) and although some – such as photographs of works by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) – can be conclusively linked to Whistler, others could have been collected by any member of the Birnie-Philip or Whistler family.

Notes:

1: [1902], Diaries, Bk 12, Freer Gallery Archives.

2: Whistler to Freer, [23 March 1900/June 1902], GUW #13883.

3: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 41).

4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 468).

5: Curry 1984 [more] , p. 150, pl. 59; photograph from GUL of Durer drawing, repr. as Portrait of a Young Boy, fig. 59.1.

6: Silver gelatin print, GUL Whistler PH3/21; see Glasgow University Library website at http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk.

Last updated: 2nd January 2021 by Margaret