Titles

Possible titles include:

• 'Portrait of George W. Vanderbilt' (1980, YMSM). 1
• 'George W. Vanderbilt' (2015, National Gallery of Art). 2

'Portrait of George W. Vanderbilt' is the preferred title.

Description

A full length portrait of a man in vertical format. He wears a grey suit, a white shirt with high collar and black bow tie, and he holds a slim cane with both hands. It crosses his thighs, at a slight diagonal from lower left to higher at right. Behind him, a grey wall with a white dado runs from centre left diagonally back into the dark depths of the room at right.

Sitter

George Washington Vanderbilt (1862-1914) . In December 1897 when the first stage of the portrait was over, Whistler wrote to Vanderbilt: 'And for once I think I may say as Ingres did when he was confronted with his own portrait of Prince Napoléon, Quel beau portrait que vous avez là mon Prince!' 3

Théodore Duret (1838-1927) commented on the extreme thinness of the legs as being true to life. 4

Vanderbilt also commissioned portraits of his wife and child (Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt [YMSM 515] and Portrait of a Baby [YMSM 549]).