The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom dates from 1871/1873. It was signed for exhibition in 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 41).

Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom, The Hunterian

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 402).

Images

Subject

Titles

• 'Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom' (1886, Dowdeswell's). ¹
• 'Gold and Pink' (1889, Wunderlich's). ²
• 'Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom' (1995, MacDonald). ³

In this catalogue raisonné Whistler's title or the first published title is retained, wherever possible. Whistler’s use of 'flesh-colour' to describe colour, as here, could imply a racist presumption that skin tone is defined as 'white' or Caucasian. In this case it presumably means the pale white, cream and pink of the model's skin, with the word 'gold' to add emotive and economic values. Wunderlich's, however, reduced the elaborate title to a simple 'Gold and Pink'.

Description

Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom, The Hunterian

A nude woman stands in three-quarter view to left, her left leg slightly bent. She is holding (not very securely) a white pot with a light red trim, from which a young shrub is growing, bearing a few pale greeny lemon leaves or blossom. Her hair is bound in a scarf or ribbons of similar yellow. The drawing is in vertical format.

Sitter

Not identified.

Technique

Composition

This is one of a series of studies of a nude woman holding a flowering plant in a pot.

Technique

Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom, The Hunterian

The figure is outlined in black, with touches of white and pink rubbed slightly, leaving the brown of the paper showing through, to suggests flesh. There are some pentimenti on the arms and legs.

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 402).

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1935: given by Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

• 1886: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 41) as 'Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom'.
• 1889: “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 45) as 'Gold and Pink'.

The New York Times did not described this pastel specifically, but commented on 3 March 1889 that 'the Wunderlich exhibition included 'pastels of nude young ladies who rely a good deal on the color of the paper on which they live for their existence.' ⁴

Whistler asked the high price of 80 guineas in 1889, but it remained unsold, and was returned after the exhibition by Wunderlich's on the SS Servia. ⁵

By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's gift, this drawing can not be lent to other venues.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 402) as 'Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 41) as 'Note in flesh-colour gold – The Golden Blossom'.
• “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 45) as 'Gold and Pink'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., New York Herald, New York, 2 March 1889.
• Anon., 'Etchings, Drawings, Pastels', New York Times, New York, 3 March 1889, p. 5.

Journals 1906-Present

• de Kay, Charles, 'Whistler. The head of the Impressionists', Art Review, vol. 1, no. 1, 1886, p. 2.
• 'Quatre etudes de James M. R.(sic) Whistler', La Revue Independente de Litterature d'Art, November 1886.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• The Times, London, 1 June 1915, p. 11.
• Anon., 'Art & Artists', The Observer, London, 6 June 1915.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.