The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0542
Portrait of a boy
Date
Portrait of a boy dates from 1873/1878. It is dated from the technique and possible age of the sitter, who is believed to be Rémy Granville Mignot (1861-1927).
Portrait of a boy, Colby College Museum of Art
It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 542). The provenance and information on the sitter has been revised.
Images
Portrait of a boy, Colby College Museum of Art
Subject
Sitter
Portrait of a boy, Colby College Museum of Art
This may be Rémy Granville Mignot (1861-1927), the son of the South Carolina-born landscape painter, Louis-Rémy Mignot (1831-1870), a friend of the Whistlers. He married Zairah C. Harris of Baltimore and their son, Rémy Granville Mignot, was born in Baltimore. Louis-Rémy Mignot died prematurely in Brighton leaving his widow and son in poverty; his widow organised a memorial exhibition in Paris in 1876.
By 1868 the family was in England and Rémy remembered his father taking him with Whistler, William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900) and Algernon Charles Swinburne (1837-1909) to see 'Blue-Gown' win the Derby. 1
Rémy Granville Mignot married Hilda C. Bradley (1897-1950) and they had two children, Marjorie Cordelia (1897-1950) and Brian Boyse (1902-1967) before being divorced in 1906. With his second wife, Edith Constance Mignot, he had another son, Adrian St Rémy Mignot (1909-1975). Like his father, Rémy Granville Mignot was an artist, but was not very successful; he died in Stepney, England. 2
Technique
Technique
Portrait of a boy, Colby College Museum of Art
The figure is lightly outlined and roughly shaded, the lines being soft and rather uncertain. There is a tiny area of white highlighting the boy's head.
History
Provenance
- Date unknown: passed by family descent to a private collector.
- Before 2013: bought by Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) and Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933);
- 2013: given to Colby College Museum of Art, The Lunder Collection.
Exhibitions
It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 542) as 'Portrait of a boy'.
Websites
- Colby College Museum of Art website at https://www.colby.edu/museum/collection.
Notes:
1: Reminiscence in an unidentified press-cutting, according to a note labelled 'M.A.P., 1 August 1903, p. 133', GUL Whistler PC, WPP.
2: Coffey, John W., 'Louis Rémy Mignot', Find a Grave website at https://www.findagrave.com; see also https://www.ancestry.co.uk website, and Katherine E. Manthorne, with John W. Coffey and David Moltke-Hansen, The Landscape Paintings of Louis Rémy Mignot: A Southern Painter Abroad, Washington, DC, 1996).