The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

La Mère Gérard (2) dates from 1858 or 1859: the dated signature is partly rubbed out.

La Mère Gérard (2), Washington County Museum of Fine Arts

La Mère Gérard (1), Colby College Museum of Art

The portrait is closely related to other portraits of the sitter, La Mère Gérard (1) y026 and the etching La Mère Gérard [24].

On 28 October 1858 the Maison Fontaine, frame-makers at Cité Bergère, No. 2, Faubourg Montmartre, No. 6, Paris, sent Whistler a bill for purchases over the previous year, including 'Deux bordures toiles de 2 en 3° canaux' (Two frames for canvas size 2 with 3° reeded mouldings). ¹ The French canvas size 2 was 24 x 19 cm for a figure subject, 24 x 16 cm for a landscape and 24 x 14 cm for a marine. La Mère Gérard (2)'s canvas at 24.1 x 17.8 cm is close to the French figure size 2 canvas, but does not match it precisely. It is possible that the canvas was originally slightly wider, and has been cut down.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's original title is not known. The sole title (though with varying accents) is as follows:

• 'La Mere Gerard' (1947, MacBeth). ²
• 'La Mère Gérard (2)' (1980, YMSM). ³

The number '2' was added in the 1980 catalogue raisonné to distinguish this painting from the other known oil portrait of the sitter. 'La Mère Gérard (2)' is the preferred title.

Description

La Mère Gérard (2), Washington County Museum of Fine Arts

A figure study in vertical format. An old woman is shown seated, facing the viewer. Her head is slightly tilted to her right, and her face is lined and worn. She wears a black bonnet under a plum coloured kerchief, a dark blueish-green shawl tied below her collar, and a grey skirt. In her lap is a shallow basket overflowing with white, pink and cream flowers, possibly violets, pansies and cyclamen. The ground and background are dark grey and brown.

Sitter

Mère Gérard (fl. 1810-1860). She is shown as a flower seller, which was, at this time, one of her occupations.

La Mère Gérard, Colby College Museum of Art

She posed for several portraits including La Mère Gérard (1) y026.

There is no evidence to connect La Mère Gérard (2) with the copy Whistler is said to have made of the original portrait of Mère Gérard (La Mère Gérard (1) y026).

Whistler's friend, the sculptor Charles L. Drouet (1836-1908), informed the Pennells that he believed a third portrait of the sitter once existed, but it had vanished by 1908 and there is no other evidence to support Drouet's claim. ⁴

Comments

This is one of many studies by Whistler of elderly women, which include drawings such as Standing figure of an old woman m0275, and etchings such as La Rétameuse [26], La Vieille aux Loques [27].

The subject of the flower-seller was popular in nineteenth-century art. It can be read as a reflection on the economic conditions of contemporary artists.

Phyllis Sobieski compared Whistler's painting to the work of Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn (1617-1681):

'Only Gérard's face is illuminated, her lap of flowers sharing the light. Like Rembrandt, whom Whistler admired, Whistler's source of light is placed behind the subject, effecting a glow which seemingly comes from within. Whistler's handling is extraordinarily gentle. Care-worn, gaunt, almost ascetic, the slanted eyes peer out, almost unseeing; an aquiline nose, winter's ruddy cheeks, high cheekbones, all are drawn with a most caring hand.' ⁵

Technique

Technique

La Mère Gérard (2), Washington County Museum of Fine Arts

It is painted fairly thickly in subdued colours, with some impasto on the flowers, on a cradled panel.

Conservation History

La Mère Gérard (2), photograph, 1914

La Mère Gérard (2), photograph, 1950s?

La Mère Gérard (2), photograph, 1950s?

La Mère Gérard (2), Washington County Museum of Fine Arts

When seen by Andrew McLaren Young (1913-1975) in 1972 there were areas at left and right that were badly blistered, and old photographs show signs of craquelure. Photographs suggest that it has darkened, but this may be the fault of the lighting; in any case it has been cleaned and restored.

Frame

Not known.

History

Provenance

• 1905: bought in collaboration with 'Konody' – probably the art critic Paul George Konody (1872-1933) – by P. and D. Colnaghi & Co., London art dealers, 1 March 1905, for £50 (Colnaghi #1576);
• 1907: ownership transferred to Colnaghi's, 1 July 1907;
• 1910: sold by Colnaghi's to the Victor Fischer Co. on 7 June 1910 for £130.
• 1914: bought from V. G. Fischer by Knoedler, New York dealers, on 13 March 1914 (Knoedler #13446);
• 1914: bought from Knoedler's by Senator William Andrews Clark (1839-1925), April 1914;
• 1926: after his death, sold at auction, W. A. Clark sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 2 January 1926 (lot 59), and bought by Kraushaar, New York art dealers, for $525;
• 1926/1929: sold by Kraushaar to Chester Dale (1883-1962);
• 1946: sold at auction, Parke-Bernet, New York, 16 May 1946 (lot 100), bought by Baruch Feldman (n/a), Renaissance Galleries, Philadelphia, for $500;
• 1947: sold by J. Levy Gallery, New York, to Babcock Galleries, New York, 31 October 1947;
• 1951: sold by Babcock Galleries on 15 October 1951 to Roger S. Phillips (dates unknown), who still owned it in 1980.
• 1990: sold at auction, Christie's, New York, 27 September 1990 (lot 26);
• 1991: donated by Albert R. Miller Jr (1913-1995), Baltimore, MD, to the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD;
• 1995: unveiled at Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, and dedicated to Catherine Lavinia Newcomer Miller (Mrs A. R. Miller) (m. 1945).

There is no record of this painting's history before 1905.

According to the records of the Babcock Galleries, New York, it was at one time in the possession of Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914). However, there is no proof of this. Canfield's collection of Whistlers was sold to Knoedler’s in 1914, which is about the same time as the acquisition of La Mère Gérard (2) y027. This coincidence might have caused the assumption.

Exhibitions

• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 2) as 'La mère Gérard'.

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime. It was first shown in the Whistler Memorial Exhibition in Paris in 1905.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 27), plate 10, as 'La Mère Gérard (2)'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Exposition des œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l’École des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 2) as 'La mère Gérard'.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 73.

Books, General

• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, pp. 195-96.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Dale, Maud (preface), Before Manet to Modigliani from the Chester Dale Collection, New York, 1929 (cat. no. 48)
• McIntyre, Robert G., Whistler: Loan Exhibition, New York, Macbeth Gallery, 1947 (cat. no. 32) as 'La Mere Gerard'.
• Sobieski, Phyllis Knapp, To Draw from Nature: The Dr and Mrs Albert J. Miller, Jr. Collection, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, 1995, pp. 143-46, repr. frontispiece.
• Americans Abroad, Washington County Museum of Fine Arts, Hagerstown, MD, 1998.

SALE:

• W. A. Clark sale, Parke-Bernet, New York, 2 January 1926 (lot 59) 'La Mère Gérard'.
• Parke-Bernet, New York, 16 May 1946 (lot 100), repr.
• Christie's, New York, 27 September 1990 (lot 26).

Journals 1906-Present

• Benson, E. M., 'Problems of Portraiture', Magazine of Art, Washington DC, vol. 30, 1937, supplement.

• Sickert, Walter Richard, ‘Where Paul and I differ’, Art News, no. 14, 10 February 1910, p. 113.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• Woods, Jean, 'Kaleidoscope: Whistler: Versatile Expatriate', The Herald Mail, Hagerstown, MD, 20 September 1990.
• Rasmussen, Fred, 'Albert Miller Jr., 82, art benefactor', Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, MD, 16 September 1995, online at http://articles.baltimoresun.com.

Websites

• Washington County Museum of Fine Arts website at http://wcmfa.org/collections/ (forthcoming).

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 18) 'La Mère Gérard'.