The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

r.: A nude pulling a black robe over her head; v.: Cockerel dates from about 1893.

r.: A nude pulling a black robe over her head, The Hunterian

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1382).

Images

Subject

Sitter

r.: A nude pulling a black robe over her head, The Hunterian

Unidentified. The recto of r.: A nude pulling a black robe over her head; v.: Cockerel m1382 and A nude with red hair m1384 show a similar sturdy model.

Technique

Technique

r.: A nude pulling a black robe over her head, The Hunterian

Black was used to outline the figure, and smudged into the raised robe and the background above the sofa. The colours were blocked out with the round end of the pastel. Slight variations in flesh tones mark the planes of a robust body, accentuated with round highlights, using the end of the pastel in shades of pale ochre, beige, lemon and white. The rubbed-in off-white background and roughly sketched sofa define the space the figure stands in so solidly. The 'o' inscribed on the drawing may be a mark of appreciation added by Whistler or Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896).

In signature, technique and paper it is similar to A nude with red hair m1384.

The sketch on the verso was drawn the other way up from the recto, on card which has a vertical grain. It is crude, and not necessarily by Whistler.

Conservation History

The paper is grey-brown with some large golden flecks of stalk and small fibres, but is slightly abraded at the top.

History

Provenance

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

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's gift, the painting 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. 1382) as 'r.: A nude pulling a black robe over her head; v.: Cockerel'.

Websites

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