The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Note in Violet and Green was started in the early 1870s and reworked in the mid-1880s.

Note in Violet and Green, Freer Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1074).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Note in Violet and Green, Freer Gallery of Art

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

Not identified. She posed also for Harmony in Blue and Violet m1076.

Technique

Technique

Note in Violet and Green, Freer Gallery of Art

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1074).

History

Provenance

• 1876: bought from Charles William Deschamps (1848-1908), London art dealer, by Thomas Way (1837-1915), according to his son;
• 1885-1887: borrowed by the artist for exhibition, but returned;
• 1905: bought from Way's son, Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, June 1905;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1074).

Exhibitions

• 1875: possibly Eleventh Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1875 (cat. no. unknown).
• 1885: Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 568) as 'Note in Violet and Green'.
• 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. 73) as 'The Purple Cap'.

John Calcott Horsley (1817-1903) (nicknamed 'Clothes Horsley') had publicly deplored the moral effect of drawing from the nude on both artist and model. Therefore, according to the Pall Mall Gazette of 8 December 1885, Whistler added the note 'Horsley soit qui mal y pense' to one of his drawings, then on show at the Society of British Artists. The Observer on 29 November 1885 commented that 'a female figure whose excessively slight drapery is the result of some half dozen strokes of the crayon, conveys Mr. Whistler’s contribution to the model controversy in the legend "Horsley soit qui mal y pense".' The St James Gazette on 7 December 1885 asserted that the Horsley note was attached to Harmony in Opal and Violet m1075, but according to the Pall Mall Gazette it was attached to 'Note in Violet and Green'. The Pall Mall Gazette called the label 'an indignant protest against the idea that there is any immorality in the nude'. Whistler replied: "Art certainly requires no 'indignant protest' against the unseemliness of senility. "Horsley soit qui mal y pense" is meanwhile a sweet sentiment - why more - and why 'morality'?" ¹

These two pastels – Note in Violet and Green and Harmony in Opal and Violet – were apparently similar, and Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) commented, 'they are very well chosen, and very well placed models, lightly draped and drawn with a delicate vision of what it is most graceful to include and most wise to omit.' ² Truth described the exhibited 'Note in Violet and Green' as 'a scantily-draped female figure bearing the legend, "Horsley soit qui mal y pense." ' ³ The St James Gazette described it further: 'a girl in diaphanous drapery leans doubtful for a second against the edge of her bath... its modelling is perfect so far as it goes.' ⁴ This description fits the existing pastel Note in Violet and Green m1074 but the colour scheme does not match that pastel very well. Thus it is not absolutely certain to which pastel the note was attached; in any case, the SBA committee asked Whistler to remove the note, which he did.

NOTE: By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1074) as 'Note in Violet and Green'.

Authored by Whistler

• Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890, p. 195.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly Eleventh Exhibition of the Society of French Artists, Deschamps Gallery, London, 1875 (cat. no. unknown).
• Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 568) as 'Note in Violet and Green'.
• 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. 73) as 'The Purple Cap'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• [Society of British Artists], The Observer, London, 29 November 1885.
• Anon., 'The British Artists', Truth, London, 3 December 1885, p. 16.
• Anon., 'Society of British Artists', The Globe, London, 5 December 1885, p. 2.
• Anon., 'The British Artists', St James Gazette, London, 7 December 1885, p. 6.
• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', Illustrated London News, London, 12 December 1885, p. 440.
• Anon., Pall Mall Gazette, London, 8 & 10 December 1885 (repr. as 'Ingratitude' in Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890, p.195).
• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', The Times, London, 3 December 1885, p. 8.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists', Athenaeum, no. 2508, 20 November 1875, pp. 578-9.
• Wedmore, Frederick, 'The Society of British Artists', Academy, vol. 28, 19 December 1885, p. 417.
• Scott, William, 'Reminiscences of Whistler. Some Venice Recollections', The Studio, vol. 30, November 1903, pp. 97-108, at p. 108.
• Anon., The Studio Whistler Portfolio, London, 1905 (ten colour reproductions), pl. 3.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 270, pl. 267.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1905.128a-b, as 'The Purple Cap'.