The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study for a portrait of Baby Leyland dates from 1873/1874.

Study for a portrait of Baby Leyland, Freer Gallery of Art

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 517).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Study for a portrait of Baby Leyland, Freer Gallery of Art

Elinor Leyland (1861-1952).

Technique

Composition

Study for a portrait of Baby Leyland, Freer Gallery of Art

This is may be a study for the The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111.

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: with William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London art dealer (label).
• By 1903: owned by Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913);
• 1905: bought from Way by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in June 1905;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions

• 1903: possibly Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. unknown).

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. 517) as 'Study for a portrait of Baby 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. 111).

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. unknown).

Journals 1855-1905

• Sickert, Oswald, ‘The Oil Paintings of James McNeill Whistler’, The Studio, vol. 30, October 1903, pp. 3-10, repr. p. 5 as 'Baby Leyland'.

Books on Whistler

• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, p. 142, fig. 142.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, repr. f.p. 46.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 249, pl. 227.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1905.147a-b.