The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of Luke A. Ionides dates from 1860. ¹

Portrait of Luke A. Ionides, Private collection

According to the sitter, Lucas (Luke) Alexander Ionides (1837-1924), it was the praise given by the artist George Frederick Watts (1817-1904) to At the Piano y024 in 1859 that influenced his father, Alexander Constantine Ionides (1810-1890), to commission this portrait shortly afterwards. ² Luke Ionides stated that his portrait was 'only completed after a dozen sittings' in 1860. ³

Images

Subject

Titles

Two titles have been suggested:

• 'Portrait of L. A. Ionides, Esq.' (1905, ISSPG). ⁴
• 'Portrait of Luke A. Ionides' (1980, YMSM). ⁵

'Portrait of Luke A. Ionides' is the preferred title.

Description

Portrait of Luke A. Ionides, private collection

A half length portrait in vertical format. It shows a young man with dark brown hair and a substantial beard and moustache. He is seated in three-quarter view to right, against a pale background.

Sitter

Lucas (Luke) Alexander Ionides (1837-1924).

He was painted by George Frederick Watts (1817-1904), Alphonse Legros (1837-1911), and Sir William Blake Richmond as well as by Whistler. ⁶

Comments

The Pennells compared it with At the Piano y024 and Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room y034 as showing the influence of Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet (1819-1877):

'Two other pictures of 1860 are the portrait of Mr. Luke Ionides with long, brown beard, and The Music Room. In both, the influence of the Louvre and Courbet is evident. The portrait has the heavy painting of At the Piano, though it is much more brilliant. But the other picture marks a tremendous advance.' ⁷

Technique

Technique

Portrait of Luke A. Ionides, private collection

Luke Ionides described Whistler's method of painting:

'He would compose his colour on the palette, and put on some touch; then he would stand off, and re-compose his colour. It was almost like working in mosaic. He never, to my knowledge, made any studies of the sitter before beginning a portrait.' ⁸

It is painted thickly, with vigorous brushwork and with some areas of impasto, the paint applied with a palette knife as well as brush, showing, as Andrew McLaren Young (1913-1975) commented, that Jean-Désiré-Gustave Courbet (1819-1877) 'was still a dominant influence.' ⁹

Conservation History

Meier-Graefe wrote of it in 1908 as having 'cracked as a result of loading the dark pigment on an ill-prepared ground.' ¹⁰ Similarly the Times in 1911 described it as 'an early work of great beauty and interest, but already falling into ruin.' ¹¹ It has, however, since been restored.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• 1860: commissioned by Alexander Constantine Ionides (1810-1890), London;
• 1890: passed to the sitter, Lucas (Luke) Alexander Ionides (1837-1924) after his father's death;
• 1924: bequeathed to his son, Cyril Constantine Luke Alexander Ionides (1873-1960);
• 1960: passed by family descent to Hugo Meynell Cyril Ionides (1900-1991);
• 1968: sold to Michael O. Carruthers (n/a).

According to the Pennells, it was offered for sale in 1905 to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) of Detroit, who declined it. ¹²

Exhibitions

• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 89) as 'Portrait of L. A. Ionides, Esq.'
• 1960: Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 4) as ‘Luke A. Ionides’.

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

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. 32), plate 21, as 'Portrait of Luke A. Ionides'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• The International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers (ed.), Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late J. McNeill Whistler, London, 1905 (cat. no. 89) as 'Portrait of L. A. Ionides, Esq.'

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907 (cat. no. 435).
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Joanna Dunn, and Joyce H. Townsend, 'Painting Joanna Hiffernan', in Margaret F. MacDonald (ed.), The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and Washington, 2020, pp. 33-45.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 89, 133, repr. f.p. 188.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 113.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. nos. 57, 183).

Books, General

• Ionides, Luke, Memories, Paris, 1925, p. 9.
• Meier-Graefe, Julius, Modern Art, 2 vols., London and New York, 1908, vol. 2, p. 204.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• The National Portrait Society (ed.), Catalogue of the Inaugural Exhibition, London, 1911 (cat. untraced).
• Young, Andrew McLaren, James McNeill Whistler: An Exhibition of Paintings and Other Works, Organized by the Arts Council of Great Britain and the English-Speaking Union of the United States, London and New York, 1960 (cat. no. 4).

Journals 1906-Present

• Ionides, Luke, 'Memories: Whistler in the Quartier Latin', Transatlantic Review, vol. 1, January 1924, pp. 37-52, at pp. 40-41.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• Anon., 'The National Portrait Society at the Grafton Galleries', The Times, London, 20 January 1911, p. 10.

Websites

On Luke Ionides and his family:

• Constantine Ionides Bequest Study Guide, V&A Museum, website at http://www.vam.ac.uk.
• Long, Christopher, 'Lucas Alexander ‘Luke’ (Alexander) Ionides', Ionides genealogy, Family Group Sheet, website at http://www.christopherlong.co.uk.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 25) 'Portrait of Luke A. Ionides'.

Other

• None.