Titles

Various titles have been given:

• 'Green and Gold. The Lady of the Black Heart' (1900, Society of Portrait Painters). 1
• 'LE COLLIER DE JATTE' (date unknown, label on verso).
• 'collar de Jade' (1900?, R. Birnie Philip). 2
• 'The Jade Necklace' (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). 3
• 'The Jade Necklace' (1980, YMSM). 4

'The Jade Necklace' is the preferred title.

Description

A head and shoulders portrait of a young woman with dark hair wearing a black dress with a high collar, and a necklace of three strands of jade beads. She has a narrow face and dark brown hair with a neat fringe, and she looks directly at the viewer. The portrait is in vertical format.

Sitter

Whistler's sister-in-law, ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) . This portrait was among the huge and important collection she bequeathed to the University of Glasgow.

The necklace was bequeathed by the sitter to the University of Glasgow, and is part of the important Whistler Collection in the Hunterian. It has three strands of jade and coloured beads with a woven ball-and-noose fastener, the main strand being 54.5 cm.