The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Mrs Leyland, standing, head turned to the front dates from 1871/1874,

Mrs Leyland, standing, head turned to the front, Freer Gallery of Art,

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 438).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Mrs Leyland, standing, head turned to the front, Freer Gallery of Art,

Frances Leyland (1834-1910).

Technique

Composition

Mrs Leyland, standing, head turned to the front, Freer Gallery of Art,

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

This is one of several studies related to Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106. In this the overskirt is pulled up at intervals and pinned with small flowers or rosettes. The figure faces right and looks at the viewer, the opposite of the pose in the painting. ¹

History

Provenance

• 1908: one of four drawings out of eleven sent by Obach, London art dealers, and bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, on 13 October 1908 (31 December 1908, voucher No. 43, FGA);
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

The early provenance is unknown.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

By the terms of C. L. Freer's will, 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. 438) as 'Mrs Leyland, standing, head turned to the front'.
• 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).

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 108, repr. p. 108, pl. 101.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 252, pl. 232.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1908.197a-b.