The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

La Jeunesse dates from about 1893.

La Jeunesse, The Hunterian

It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1380).

Images

Subject

Sitter

La Jeunesse, The Hunterian

A very young model, unidentified.

Technique

Composition

La Jeunesse, The Hunterian

Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art

The pose, showing a young woman disrobing, and the placing of the figure in relation to the sofa, suggests a relationship to the oil painting Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl y421, which was started at this time.

Technique

La Jeunesse, The Hunterian

There are at least two butterflies, one rubbed out on the seat right, and one on the back of the sofa, possibly yet another on the seat left. The charcoal gave a wide range of line, from the hard line of the robe to the softest of shadows.

Conservation History

The paper has some fibres and small pieces of wood-stalk.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death in 1903 and bequeathed to his sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1935: given by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 134) as 'La Jeunesse'.

By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's Gift, 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. 1380) as 'La Jeunesse'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 134) as 'La Jeunesse'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Aquarellen, Pastels, Teekingen, Etsen, Lithographien en een Schilderij door James McNeill Whistler, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1906 (cat. no. 23) as 'La Jeunesse'.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.