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

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Portrait of Miss Lilian Woakes

Titles

Minor variations on the title have been suggested:

  • 'Portrait of Miss Lilian Woakes' (1980, YMSM). 1
  • 'Miss Lillian Woakes' (2015, Phillips Collection). 2

'Portrait of Miss Lilian Woakes' is the preferred title.

Description


                    Portrait of Miss Lilian Woakes, Phillips Memorial Gallery
Portrait of Miss Lilian Woakes, Phillips Memorial Gallery

A half-length portrait of a young woman in vertical format. She has dark curly hair, and looks directly at the viewer. The light comes from the left. Her dress is white with grey gathered or puffed sleeves; it has complex folds and frills, a pale blue trim around the neckline, and a pale pink bow above her breast.

Sitter

Lilian Woakes (b. 1866) was twenty-two or twenty-three when she posed. Whistler seems to have met her father Edward G. Woakes (1837-1912) through his brother William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900).

Notes:

1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 393).

2: Phillips Collection website at http://www.phillipscollection.org.

Last updated: 14th October 2020 by Margaret