The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study of Mrs Leyland dates from 1871/1874.

Study of Mrs Leyland, Freer Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 430).

Images

Subject

Sitter

This is a study for Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106, although it is not certain if Frances Leyland (1834-1910) actually posed for it.

Technique

Composition

Study of Mrs Leyland, Freer Gallery of Art

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, The Frick Collection

This is one of the earliest of numerous studies for Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106. Galassi comments that at this stage the design was 'classical', with the drapery over the torso 'arranged in loose imitation of a Greek tunic'. ¹

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: at some time with William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London dealer.
• By 1902: owned by Thomas Way (1837-1915), in London;
• 1905: bought from Way's son, Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, in June 1905
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 430).

Exhibitions

• 1874: possibly Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874 (cat. no. 19, 29 or 30) as 'Design for Dress'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 47) as 'Study of Mrs.Leyland'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 430) as 'Study of Mrs Leyland'.
• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (oil, cat. no. 106).

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874 (cat. no. 19, 29 or 30) as 'Design for Dress'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 47) as 'Study of Mrs.Leyland'.

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 105-06. repr. p. 105.
• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, p. 133, fig. 3.19.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 46, 252, pl. 233.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1905.157a-b as 'Study'.