The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Mrs Birnie Philip and a daughter probably dates from 1897.

Mrs Birnie Philip and a daughter, The Hunterian

It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1457) dated c. 1896.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Mrs Birnie Philip and a daughter, The Hunterian

Mother and Daughter (La mère malade), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

Frances Philip (1824-1917) with either Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) or her elder sister Ethel Whibley (1861-1920). They posed for two similar subjects, the lithographs Afternoon Tea c173 and Mother and Daughter [La Mère Malade] c174.

Technique

Composition

Mrs Birnie Philip and a daughter, The Hunterian

Mother and Daughter (La mère malade), National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC

It is closely related to the lithograph Mother and Daughter [La Mère Malade] c174, which is dated 1897 and was printed in Paris.

Technique

The areas of angular shading and cross-hatching indicate the textures and planes of the figures.

History

Provenance

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

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. 1457) as 'Mrs Birnie Philip and a daughter'.
• Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998, p. 486 (lithographs, cat. nos. 173-74).

Websites

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