The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of Miss Emily Tuckerman was drawn in 1898 and sent to the sitter in that August, according to a label on the verso.

Portrait of Miss Emily Tuckerman, Freer Gallery of Art

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1546a).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Portrait of Miss Emily Tuckerman, Freer Gallery of Art

Emily Tuckerman (1853-1924). She posed in Whistler's house: the windsor chair is still in the Hunterian, University of Glasgow.

Technique

Technique

Portrait of Miss Emily Tuckerman, Freer Gallery of Art

The pose is a little stiff and the technique, the blending of pastel reminiscent of eighteenth century pastellists, not entirely successful. The face is slightly over-worked, with the fibres of the paper much disturbed. Her neck appears to have been reworked, as has an area at the base of her cloak and seat.

Conservation History

The board was commercially prepared, and the paper, fibrous, with knobs and bits of wood or stalk, a dull brown, has a vertical grain. The mount has left gilt marks down the left and top side.

Frame

Portrait of Miss Emily Tuckerman, Freer Gallery of Art

History

Provenance

• 1898: sent by Whistler to Emily Tuckerman (1853-1924);
• 1924: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art;
• 1925: given by Miss Tuckerman's niece Dorothy, Mrs George Draper (1889-1969), through Charles Adams Platt, to the Freer Gallery of Art.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1546a).

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1546a) as 'Portrait of Miss Emily Tuckerman'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 279, pl. 282.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1925.1a-b, as 'Portrait of Miss Emily Tuckerman'