The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Harmony in Flesh Colour and Pink dates from 1881/1882, and is a drawing of the oil portrait that was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882 as 'Harmony in Flesh-Colour and Pink – Mrs. H. B. Meux' and renamed Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux y229 for Whistler's retrospective in 1892. ¹ The drawing was signed with a second butterfly, probably in 1891.

Harmony in Flesh Colour and Pink, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 852).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Harmony in Flesh Colour and Pink, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University

Valerie Susan Meux (née Langdon) (1847-1910) certainly posed for her portrait, but probably not for this drawing.

Technique

Composition

Harmony in Flesh Colour and Pink, Davison Art Center, Wesleyan University

Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux, The Frick Collection

A drawing or memory sketch of Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux y229.

History

Provenance

• 1891: signed for Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932), New York dealer.
• By 1907: owned by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938).
• 1918-1919: possibly with Arden Gallery, New York.
• 1937: given by George W. Davison, Class of 1892, to Wesleyan University.

Exhibitions

No record of exhibitions in Whistler's lifetime has been found.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 852) as 'Harmony in Flesh Colour and Pink'.

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 175, pl. 167.

Websites

• Davison Art Center website at http://dac-collection.wesleyan.edu.