Composition

Blue and Coral: The Little Blue Bonnet [YMSM 500] appears to be the last in Whistler's sequence of 'Blue Girls', started in the 1870s. The dress is based loosely on a full-length portrait of the dancer Connie Gilchrist (1864-1946), The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist [YMSM 207]. It dates from about 1879 and was probably in Whistler's London studio. The original dress is extremely unlikely to have survived but it may be that Whistler wished it to be recreated. However, the hat gave the model an up-to-date, fashionable appearance.

This is the largest and the most finished of Whistler's oval portraits (see, for instance, A Paris Model [YMSM 458]).

Technique

The right side of her face, as seen in 1898 reproductions, was originally painted with a very dark, hard outline, although this was somewhat blurred by the ruff over her chin. 1

Whistler altered a reproduction from the Academy of 10 December 1898, in his own press cutting book, by further accenting the outline of the face in ink, making it squarer. 2 However, if anything the effect was later softened: the tone of her hat was darkened, and the cloak and shadow behind her right shoulder were extended nearly to the butterfly. A shadow behind her ruff and shoulder at right was emphasized with dark paint, as – to a lesser extent – was the curve of her bodice.

Conservation History

Unknown. It does appear lighter in early photographs, but this might have been the effect of lighting and the photographic process.

Frame

82.5 x 68.6 x 5.72 cm.