The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Bead Stringers dates from about 1898.

The Bead Stringers, The Hunterian

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1530).

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler referred to a pastel, probably this, as 'Conversation - Beads'. However, after Whistler's death, it was exhibited as 'En enfilant des perles. - (Bead Stringing)'. ¹ Miss R B. Philip wrote the title 'The Bead Stringers', which is generally accepted, on the verso of the frame.

Sitter

The Bead Stringers, The Hunterian

Eva Victoria Carrington (1887-1979) and Gladys Winifred Carrington (1889-1940). Eva holds a necklace and Gladys, a fan.

Technique

Technique

The Bead Stringers, The Hunterian

The charcoal outlines lines have a rich, silvery quality, framing a wide range of colours from the rubbed in pale lilac of the studio sofa, to the touches of pale pinks and blue, and the bright caps in purple and green.

Conservation History

The paper is a dull grey-brown, fibrous, with small flecks of wood-stalk, and has a horizontal grain.

History

Provenance

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

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1530).

Exhibitions

• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 149) as 'Bead Stringing'.

Due to the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's Gift, this work cannot be exhibited elsewhere.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1530) as 'The Bead Stringers'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 149) as 'En enfilant des perles. - (Bead Stringing)'.

Websites

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