The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland was started in 1871. ¹ According to the Pennells, it was commissioned by Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892), the sitter's husband. ²

1871: On 3 November 1871 Whistler’s mother Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881), wrote that it had just been started at Speke Hall, near Liverpool, 'Mrs. Leyland writes me that she thinks the full length Portrait he has begun of herself will be as lifelike as she is sure mine is!' ³

1872: In March Whistler was hoping to complete the Leyland portraits for the Royal Academy, as his mother reported:

'We are in the pressure of the Season, & he begins work directly after our eight ocl breakfast regularly. he is ... trying to finish a beautiful life size of Mrs L, the pictures must be sent to the Royal Academy the 1st or 2nd day of April, though the Exhibition is not to be til a month later. I will not build castles or anticipate rewards to Jemie's diligence.' ⁴

On their return to London Mrs Leyland continued to pose daily through March-April 1872 at Whistler's house in Lindsey Row. On 12 April, for instance, Whistler's mother wrote, 'when Mrs Leyland came last week to stand day after day in the Studio for her Portrait, she of course came up to my room first, as I was yet confined to it', and on 7 May, 'I am particularly required here, while a lady is daily coming to the Studio I must be here to receive Mrs Leyland.' ⁵ The cook, Lucy Slater, helped Mrs Leyland get ready to pose, and when Lucy left, as Anna Whistler said,

'one or two of our lady friends surprised her by valuable gifts, as she had been attentive to them in no ordinary way. Mrs Leyland having always need of her at her toilette, for the Portrait, which her illness last Summer prevented Jemies finishing there, but he hopes to Exhibit it in the R A next Season with Mr Leylands.' ⁶

1874: Whistler told Mrs Leyland he was not satisfied with the portrait:

'I, to whom you are so continually indulgent seem doomed to disappointment in every effort that I make to show at all my gratitude - The thought of your portrait is upon me! - Well do I remember the persevering kindness with which you so patiently bore the fatigue of those many tiring days! ... And I am now so unhappy to know that the work itself is not worthy of the weariness it caused you - It should have been so beautiful! ... I sometimes dare to hope that still it may be saved - The strange little something, that stands between a master-piece in its perfection, and failure, might at any moment yield - and a mornings work bring with it the bright life that is now smouldering with in - So lovely is the conception too! … it is not only selfish glorification or ambition that still frets me in my disappointment - It would have been my pride to in some measure through my work thank the kind hostess who has I fear been often vexed by the waywardness and tiresome eccentricities of a never ending guest!' ⁷

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, The Frick Collection

It was exhibited in Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874 (cat. no. 2) as 'Portrait, "Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink".' Leyland paid for it in June 1874. ⁸ It is not, however, clear if he actually had it in his possession.

1876: After F. R. Leyland and Whistler quarrelled over payment for Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178, Mrs Leyland was not able to sit again for the portrait.

1877: After their quarrel, Whistler wrote to Leyland on 25 July, 'I have in my possession two portraits which, though publicly approved of, my own artistic scruples alone have prevented me from forwarding to you who are their owner.' ⁹ Leyland replied:

'I quite appreciate your "artistic scruples" to deliver the two portraits which you consider finished and I must say these scruples are uncommonly well founded. I am however willing to receive them as they are ...' ¹⁰

Alan Summerly Cole (1846-1934) wrote in his diary that he had seen the portrait in Whistler's studio on 29 July 1877. ¹¹

1878/1879: The portrait was seen by Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) at Whistler's White House in Chelsea. ¹²

1884: It is unlikely that it was worked on after 1876, although Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942) claimed that he saw 'les Leyland', a series of arrangements 'en noir et brun', at Whistler's Tite Street studio in about 1884. Possibly he meant the canvases Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F. R. Leyland y097, Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106, and Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland y107 and other works, but he may simply have misremembered the date. ¹³

Images

Subject

Titles

Possible titles include:

• 'Portrait, "Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink" ' (1874, Flemish Gallery). ¹⁴
• 'Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland' (1980, YMSM). ¹⁵

'Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland' is the preferred title.

Stephanie Strother notes that 'Whistler’s frequent use of “flesh” to describe color reflects a racist and exclusionary presumption that skin tone is defined as white or Caucasian.' Since the current catalogue uses Whistler's titles wherever possible, it has been decided to retain his usage in this catalogue raisonné. ¹⁶

Description

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, The Frick Collection

A full length portrait of a woman, in vertical format. She is standing with her back to the viewer, her face in profile to left, her hands clasped behind her back. Her dress is white with a long pink train falling from the neck. The slope of her shoulders is emphasized by a trim of ribbon and rosettes. The train is decorated with scattered rosettes in white and gold. The neck of the dress is trimmed with grey lace and a band of reddish ribbon. The transparent sleeves are bound with a narrow pink ribbon and end with a ruffle at the wrists. She stands on a white carpet with a woven chequered pattern. The wall behind her is pale pinkish grey with a white dado. At upper left are sprays of white blossom.

Susan Galassi commented on the portrait as follows:

'… the subject and her dress compete for the viewer’s attention. … Mrs. Leyland’s face is shown in profile facing left; her downcast eyes and a slightly down-turned mouth convey a sense of gravity. Her auburn hair – the key color tone in the painting – is arranged simply in two coils on top of her head.

... Her pink gown harmonizes not only with her reddish brown hair, but with her surroundings. Blossoming almond branches cut off at the left by the edge of the painting in the manner of a Japanese print set off the delicacy of the floral appliqués of her dress, while at right a spray of green foliage points to the artist's prominent butterfly signature.' ¹⁷

Site

Although the portrait was started in the Leylands' residence, Speke Hall near Liverpool, the setting depicted is Whistler's house in Chelsea at 2 Lindsey Row. According to the Pennells, 'Mrs. Leyland stood in the flesh-colour and yellow drawing room and he designed her gown to harmonize with it.' ¹⁸ Susan Galassi adds, 'Whistler created a complete aesthetic environment for Frances Leyland; he designed her dress and the interior of the room as an ensemble.' ¹⁹

Sitter

Mrs Leyland seated, The Hunterian

Frances Leyland (1834-1910) was the daughter of a master mariner, Thomas Dawson, of Liverpool. She married the ship-owner and collector Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) on 23 March 1855.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), who had painted two portraits of Mrs Leyland, including Monna Rosa (1867, Private collection) wrote of Whistler's portrait, 'the figure of Mrs L. a graceful design, I cannot see that it is at all a likeness.' ²⁰

Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855-1936) interviewed the sitter:

'[Mrs Leyland] remembers days when, at the end of the sitting, the portrait looked as if a few hours' work the next day was all it needed. But, in the morning, she would find it scraped down, with the work to be done over again. Notwithstanding the numerous sittings she gave, one of Whistler's models, Maud Franklin ... was called in to pose for the draperies.' ²¹

Maud Franklin, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Certainly a drawing of Whistler's new model, Maud Franklin (1857-1939), reproduced above, shows her in similar pose.

Galassi comments on the relationship of artist and model:

'Mrs. Leyland was the liaison between Whistler and his patron, as well as the painter’s confidante and muse. Whistler, in turn, provided her with companionship, amusement, and relief from her hard-driving, difficult husband. The artist’s letters to her during the years he was connected with the family reveal his affection for her. ... There is no evidence that they were lovers, but their close relationship prompted gossip ... Strains in the Leylands’ marriage, which ended in divorce in 1879, were already apparent in the early seventies when Whistler was their "never-ending guest." ' ²²

Comments

Liberty & Co., Tea Gown, 1891, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, 68.53.9

The portrait is discussed in fascinating detail by Susan Galassi. The fashionable dress is compared to a beautiful Liberty tea gown of 1891. She raises interesting questions about the aesthetic decisions made by the artist and perhaps by the model:

'Why, when the sitter herself expressed her wish to be depicted in a distinctly different mode, perhaps in a gown of her own, did Whistler insist on creating a dress for her and devote so much attention to it? And why did he choose a style that would have been perceived as unconventional? Was it Frances herself who inspired such a garment – or does the gown reflect Whistler’s idealized image of her, or a persona he constructed for her? Was he in fact painting a portrait of Frances Leyland or showcasing his talents as a designer – or an amalgam of the two – and why did he choose to portray her as majestic and remote when she was, by all accounts, lively and accessible?

In the early 1870s, Whistler was at the vanguard of the design-conscious Aesthetic movement with its cult of beauty and focus on the harmonious relationship of furniture, decorative objects, and even clothing with the décor of a room. Whistler took on the challenge of designing a dress for an important client at a time of transition in both art and fashion, and of greater fluidity between them. The Pre-Raphaelite painters had led the way in creating 'artistic dresses' worn by their models and wives, and Whistler's gown belongs in this category. Aestheticism quickly spread from its origins in literature and the fine arts to the applied arts as well: the elevation of design to high art led to the creation of artistic objects including dresses, and dress design became recognized, in the words of a contemporary writer, “as a legitimate area of concern for the artist.”

Mrs. Leyland’s dress may be loosely classified as a tea gown, which has a distinct form and significance in the language of clothing. The tea gown blossomed in England and America in the late 1870s and 1880s as an alternative to the tightly-corseted, highly-structured clothing of mainstream fashion. It emphasized the natural form of the body; loose, flowing lines, simplicity of design, and references to historic and exotic styles were the hallmarks of the new fashion. Mrs. Leyland's gown is situated somewhere between the earlier Pre-Raphaelite artistic dresses and the later modes of Aesthetic attire, which it anticipates in some respects, yet it remains a unique creation made expressly for her to wear in her portrait. Like all of Whistler's work of the period, the costume draws from an eclectic mix of historic traditions and current trends, freely adapted to articulate his ideas of the beautiful, and to assert his modernity – for which fashion was an important signifier. The portrait of Mrs. Leyland presented an opportunity for Whistler to express his artistic aims and complex relationship with his sitter by creating an ideal modern world – a symphony of the arts.' ²³

D. G. Rossetti, Monna Rosa, Private Collection

'Women associated with Pre-Raphaelite artists as wives and models, many of them painters, actresses, and literary women, including patrons of the arts, occasionally wore 'artistic' dress. As the wife of Whistler's and Rossetti's patron and Whistler's frequent companion, Frances was connected with this elite group. Whistler signaled this through the dress he designed for her, adapting Pre-Raphaelite ideals of dress to his own aesthetic interests. One painting that Whistler would have known well, and undoubtedly sought to surpass in his portrait, is a painting by Rossetti entitled Monna Rosa depicting a richly-garbed woman with flowers, which Leyland commissioned in 1867. The model … was Frances Leyland … Rossetti appears to have transformed her features to resemble more closely the Pre-Raphaelite type … epitomized by Jane Morris ... in a painting that is more of an allegory of beauty than a portrait ... Rossetti's gem-like work would have served as a challenge for Whistler: he could do no less than paint her in a costume and setting of his own creation. The gown that Whistler would design for Frances, in fact, has affinities with the robe she wears in Monna Rosa in its unstructured form. … The Pre-Raphaelite’s highly finished realism, strong color contrasts, and material opulence are countered by Whistler’s broad manner of painting, subtle, monochromatic tonalities, and simplicity. The gown and décor in the Whistler portrait are subordinate to the harmony of the painting as a whole and to the unadorned beauty of the sitter with her introspective expression. Frances wears no jewelry and her hair is arranged in a simple chignon in a contemporary, everyday style. Furthermore, the type of garment he designed for Frances – a tea gown – was up-to-date.

… the tea gown ... is generally believed to be derived from the French peignoir or robe d’intérieur with which it shared a loose shape, soft lines and often a train. In as early as 1873, Watteau pleats and a loose center front panel appeared in gowns labeled robe d’intérieur and became standard features of the tea gown, often mixed with other revival styles.

In England in the 1870s, the tea gown developed from a house robe, or negligee, into a sophisticated form of hostess gown worn over a light corset for receiving intimate friends. The relative looseness of the garment, and the ease of disrobing it afforded, associated the tea gown in the 1870s with loose morals. It was typically worn in the late afternoon, during the famous "cinq à sept" when lovers met.' ²⁴

E. Manet, Young Lady in 1866, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY, 89.21.3

'A painting of the period which featured a young woman in a robe d'intérieur – precursor to the tea gown – is Manet's Young Lady in 1866 (Woman with a Parrot) of 1866. It was shown privately to Manet's friends in his studio, and exhibited the following year in his solo exhibition at the Pont de L'Alma. Whistler was in Paris in 1867 ... and would have seen his friend’s show. In Woman with a Parrot, the auburn-haired Victorine ... wears a pink satin gown, which, in its loose shape, glossy fabric, and color, evokes the style of dress seen in Watteau's paintings. ...

Manet, along with the critics Théophile Gautier and the Goncourt brothers, was at the forefront of the revival of Watteau that began in the Romantic period and grew throughout the century ... in his Woman with a Parrot, Victorine in her Watteau gown is indeed ‘stylish’ and up-to-date – a 'young lady in 1866' – as the painting was originally titled.

… Whether Whistler drew directly from Watteau’s art, or from the emerging fashion for Watteau-style dresses in France is a matter of debate. ... Manet’s depiction of Victorine Meurent may figure among Whistler's sources for his portrait of Mrs. Leyland. Or, both artists may have been responding to the same artistic currents, blending the grande luxe of the ancien regime with modernity ...

The tea gown slipped ambiguously between the areas of formal and informal wear and was open to invention and fantasy in its design. Whistler's gown for Frances Leyland with its loose shape, pliable material, pastel color, and fusion of historical references fits in with the early tea gowns of the 1870s. Both ultra feminine and refined, it also carried with it suggestions of intimacy. To clothe an important client, the wife of his patron no less, in attire for private use in a full-length formal portrait was a daring, unexpected gesture. In contrast to the tightly-laced fashion extravaganzas of the Victorian period that compartmentalized and exaggerated the parts of the female body, Whistler's flowing gown, and the pose from behind render Frances Leyland essentially bodiless. ... Her sensuality is embodied in the tender pink dress.' ²⁵

Technique

Composition

Speke Hall: The Avenue, The Hunterian, GLAHA 46768

Galassi notes a connection to an etching by Whistler:

'In 1870 Whistler began one of his most beautiful and haunting etchings entitled Speke Hall, carrying it through ten states. A figure, generally considered to be Frances Leyland, appears in the foreground of the first state of the print, fashionably attired in a formal day dress with a train and a broad-rimmed hat. She is depicted from behind, small and alone, looking back at the imposing façade of Speke Hall in a winter landscape. The engraving sounds notes that are developed in his oil portrait of Mrs. Leyland.' ²⁶

Arrangement in Black, No. 2: Portrait of Mrs Louis Huth, Private Collection

According to the Pennells, Mrs Leyland wanted to pose dressed in black velvet like Helen Rose Huth (1837-1924) in Arrangement in Black, No. 2: Portrait of Mrs Louis Huth y125. ²⁷

The Velvet Dress, drypoint, The Hunterian, GLAHA 46774

The Little Velvet Dress,, drypoint, National Gallery of Art, DC, B-10527

Whistler made two drypoints of Mrs Leyland in such a dress in 1873, The Velvet Dress (Mrs Leyland) [120] and The Little Velvet Dress [119]. However, he designed a very different dress for the oil portrait.

Mrs Leyland, Seated, Carnegie Museum of Art

Study of Rosettes for Lady's Dress, Fogg Art Museum

There are numerous crayon studies of Mrs Leyland in various costumes and poses. An early design shows Mrs Leyland seated m0429, and some show her standing, facing the viewer, but most show her standing, in profile or turning away from the viewer.

Study for 'Symphony in Flesh-colour and Pink: Mrs F. R. Leyland', Freer Gallery of Art

Mrs Leyland standing holding a book, Freer Gallery of Art

Mrs Leyland standing holding a book, Freer Gallery of Art

There are a lot of drawings of Mrs Leyland and designs for the dress, including Figure Reading m0428, Study of Mrs Leyland m0430, Study for 'Symphony in Flesh-colour and Pink: Mrs F. R. Leyland' m0431, Mrs Leyland, standing holding a fan m0432, Study for 'Symphony in Flesh-colour and pink: Mrs F. R. Leyland' m0433, Mrs Leyland m0436, Mrs Leyland, standing, holding a book m0437, and Mrs Leyland, standing, head turned to the front m0438.

Study of Mrs Leyland, Freer Gallery of Art

Mrs Leyland, standing holding a fan, Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth

Whistler designed the dress in harmony with her auburn hair. There are drawings showing his early ideas for an elaborately gathered and beribboned dress in orange and white chiffon, with a train, and with an overskirt pulled up in flounces over a long skirt scattered with flowers, and flowers in her hair. These show her from different angles.

Study of Rosettes for Lady's Dress, Fogg Art Museum

Rosettes, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Studies of details include Study of Rosettes for Lady's Dress m0434, Rosettes m0435, and a sketch on the verso of a nude study, r.: Nude standing; v.: Designs for rosettes on Mrs Leyland's dress m0439.

Mrs Leyland, standing holding a fan, Freer Gallery of Art

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, The Frick Collection

Some of the details were retained – the puffed sleeves and scattered flowers – but the dress was simplified and the colour scheme changed from orange to pink.

Technique

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, The Frick Collection

A recent visual examination by Professor Joyce H. Townsend, Tate Britain, provides useful information:

'The weave of the unlined canvas (unusually fine, with slubs) is very obvious in the background, which is applied over a pink imprimatura.

The artist used highly-thinned paint and a 12.7 mm (½") brush to depict the two layers of chiffon fabric, which remain unresolved at the train. There is no evidence for the use of megilp or Whistler’s 'sauce'.

The figure was painted first, then the dado and floor, up to the gown. The upper layer of chiffon depending from shoulder level was applied after some of the paint of the sleeves, though logically the fabric should be beneath them. The appliqué flowers were painted onto this after the paint dried. The almond blossoms, the butterfly and its leaves were applied to dried paint. The carpet and wall details were applied up to the portrait.' ²⁸

The paint, thin in consistency, has dripped in places, down Mrs Leyland's left arm and over the dado on the right. The leaves are painted with a thin glaze of colour, like watercolour. The pattern of the matting, which is echoed in the pattern on the frame, is also painted thinly, but very precisely, with a small square brush. The blossoms and rosettes were painted with more impasto. The painting was done very freely, but it was also rubbed down and repainted frequently. The canvas is nearly bare of paint down the right side of the skirt.

There are a number of pentimenti. The head was originally a little (some 15mm) further to the left and lower, and was bent further forward. The head may also have been tried out further to the right. There was extensive reworking on both sides of the shoulders. The gown, at her waist, was also further to the right, and was thoroughly wiped back, but not scraped down. The position of several rosettes was changed on her back and below her hands. The folds of the dress were altered, and the outline of the skirt on the left, and at the hem, remains blurred. Several of the green branches in the top left corner were painted over.

The colour was also changed a little. There are traces of orange and brown in the outline of the dress that are now nearly effaced, and many of the rosettes were repainted.

Two studies of hands, The Hunterian

Four studies of hands, The Hunterian

The Pennells wrote that:

'The matting on the floor, the dado, and the spray of almond blossoms are more elaborately carried out than the detail in any other portrait. What worried him, and probably prevented the picture being finished, are the hands, which are almost untouched.' ²⁹

In fact Whistler made studies of hands that may relate to the portrait. In the final state of the oil, the hands are carefully outlined and modelled solidly in two flesh tones. They were not painted freely, but appear to be finished, and indeed, both the head and hands are highly finished.

Conservation History

It was heavily varnished before it was cleaned by the present owners. ³⁰

The Frick conservation records state that in 1922 it was noted that the surface was wrinkled; in 1933, blooming was noted; and the surface was cleaned and varnished in 1935. In 1938 George L Stout noted the canvas as having 20 or more threads/cm, and a thin grey absorbent ground, and that it was strip lined but never given a full lining. In 1942 William Suhr removed three varnishes, applied a new varnish and a new stretcher, and in 1973 he repaired and retouched an old tear. In 1980 John Brealey spit-cleaned the varnish. ³¹

Frame

1874: Flat Whistler, with large and small basket weave patterning incised on the frieze and fillets, possibly made by Frederick Fox. ³²

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, The Frick Collection

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, frame detail

Flat Whistler, dating from 1874 [15.2 cm], with two narrow outer panels decorated with a small basket-weave pattern, and a broader central panel with a larger similar pattern.

The patterning of the mat depicted in the canvas (and placed on the floor of the Flemish Gallery), was repeated on the frame of Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106, and on that of Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander y129, serving as an important link between the painted world of the sitters and that of the viewer.

History

Provenance

• 1874: it was commissioned and paid for by Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892), but remained in Whistler's hands;
• 1879/1882: returned to Leyland by Whistler;
• 1892: said to have been bequeathed to his son Frederick Dawson Leyland (1856-1916) with a life interest to the sitter, Frances Leyland (1834-1910);
• 1910: passed to her daughter Florence Leyland (1859-1921), Mrs Val Prinsep.
• 1916: bought from the art dealer Alice Buell Creelman (1858-1952) by Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), New York;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Frick Collection, New York.

On 12 June 1874 Whistler acknowledged receipt of a cheque for £210 for 'the portrait of Mrs Leyland' from F. R. Leyland. ³³ The painting was sufficiently complete for exhibition in 1874 but was not sent to Leyland at that time. After their quarrel over Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room y178, Leyland may have abandoned hope of receiving it, and he commissioned Philip Richard Morris (1836-1902) to paint his wife. Apparently Morris asked Whistler if he minded and, misinterpreting Whistler's response, accepted the commission. Whistler was not pleased, 'You are asked to paint another mans picture - & you do so', he complained. ³⁴ Morris's Portrait of Frances Leyland, now in a private collection, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1878.

When Leyland demanded delivery of the portraits commissioned by him, Whistler prevaricated. Finally Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914) wrote to Whistler on 1 February 1878,

'All that Mr Leyland asks for are his naked rights and I cannot, notwithstanding your letter, think that you wish to withhold from him the property he has bought and paid for. Be kind enough to state in precise terms what are your intentions'. ³⁵

Whistler responded:

'It is far from my wish to rob Leyland of any real right - whatever may be my opinion of his conduct - The portraits of himself and Mrs Leyland I have witheld [sic] because of certain remarks in one of his letters impugning their artistic value, and whereas I do not acknowledge that a picture once bought merely belongs to the man who pays the money, but that it is the property of the whole world, I consider that I have a right to exhibit such picture that its' [sic] character may be guaranteed by brother artists - therefore it was my intention to show, in a public exposition these two paintings this spring - and thereupon restore them to their chance purchaser … I propose to hand him over these ... pictures very shortly.' ³⁶

The painting may have been returned by Whistler to Leyland in 1878/1879 or in the mid-1880s. It was bequeathed by Leyland in 1892 to his son, with a life interest to the sitter, according to the Pennells. In 1906 both Whistler's and Morris's portraits were hanging in the sitter's drawing room. ³⁷

Exhibitions

• Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874 (cat. no. 2) as 'Portrait, "Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink".'

Press cuttings show that the portrait was well received. One critic stated:

'Amongst the portraits precedence is claimed by the exquisite "Symphony in pink and flesh colour" – a lady whose costume helps to bear out the experiment announced by the title. It would be impossible to imagine anything more tender and delicate than the graduations of colour throughout this wonderful picture; the blossoming spray on the left is perfectly marvellous, whilst in drawing the head is one of the finest things we ever saw.' ³⁸

Several press cuttings about the exhibition were kept by Whistler but were unfortunately not identified: one critic wrote that in the portrait of Mrs Leyland, 'Japanese feeling is slightly introduced but not obtruded', and another commented:

'The portrait of Mrs Leyland is an experiment in harmony of colours such as no-one but Mr Whistler dares attempt: he has succeeded to a marvellous degree; the exquisite blending of one colour with another cannot be expressed in words; it is indeed like a melody, lovely and sweet, whose construction it is impossible to analyse.' ³⁹

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland, The Frick Collection

In a letter to George A. Lucas in January 1873, Whistler proclaimed: ‘my frames I have always designed as carefully as my pictures - and thus they form as important a part as any of the rest of the work - carrying on the particular harmony throughout.' ⁴⁰ This work illustrates that statement: the frame served to connect the painting to the surrounding environment for the first exhibition of the painting in the Flemish Gallery in 1874. The gallery setting was meticulously created with the assistance of the frame-maker and decorator Fox. He was hired by Whistler in April 1874 ‘to inspect & see what repairs were necessary to the Gallery & to decorate same according to his designs’: Fox washed and distempered the walls and ceiling with light washes of colour, and it is evident from Fox’s detailed account that the colour of the room was of great importance to Whistler.

'Mr Fox then colored the walls with 2 coats of Pink distemper & the ceiling with 1 coat & after Mr Whistler did not like the effect the color [sic] being too light. The ceiling was then done with 1 coat of brown distemper & the wall with 2 coats of pink grey distemper - The skylight was washed & had one coat of white paint - the panels underneath the sky light had 2 coats of paint - the panels grey pink - the [styles?] (round the panels) pink - the mouldings round the panels were formerly gilt - but Mr Fox put 2 coats of color on the gilt ...

Mr Fox had to stop the wainscotting before painting & the upper part of the division he painted in 4 coats of White paint - & in the lower division he formed into 20 odd panels formed of 1½ inch moulding - He painted it with 3 coats of paint - [or?] white with grey mouldings.' ⁴¹

The matting depicted in the canvas also serves an important purpose. Not only is Mrs Leyland shown standing upon it, but Whistler also placed this mat (which was of his own design) within the Flemish Gallery, thus connecting the painted world of the canvas to the physical world of the viewer. This portrait and frame illustrates what the Flemish Gallery must have looked like. Whistler put colour tones everywhere – in front of the viewer, on the walls, above on the ceiling, and even below at their feet. This patterning of the mat also repeats on the frame of Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106, and similarly on the frame of Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander y129. The frame serves as a very important link between the painted world of Mrs Leyland and that of the viewer.

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. 106), plate 105, as 'Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland'.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. nos. 428-39, 454, 468, 545-46, 548-51).

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874 (cat. no. 2) as 'Portrait, "Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink" '.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., Manchester Examiner and Times, Manchester, 8 June 1874.
• Anon., 'Exhibition of Pictures', The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 8 June 1874, p. 5.
• Anon., The Hour, London, 9 June 1874.
• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Pictures', York Herald, York, 9 June 1874, p. 6.
• Anon., Illustrated London News, London, 13 June 1874, pp. 19-20.
• Anon., 'Exhibition of Mr. Whistler's Paintings and Drawings', Globe, London, 20 June 1874, p. 2.
• Anon., Evening Standard, London, 24 June 1874.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., Illustrated Review, 17 June 1874, p. 391.
• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Exhibition', The Builder, 5 July 1874.
• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Paintings and Drawings', The Art Journal, June 1874, p. 230.

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.
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, pp. 166-67, repr. pp. 165-66.
• Galassi, Susan, 'Whistler and Aesthetic Dress: Mrs Frances Leyland', in: MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 92-115, also pp. 48, 51, 68, 71, 138, 153, 220, repr. fig. 91.
• Getscher, Robert H., and Paul G. Marks, James McNeill Whistler and John Singer Sargent. Two Annotated Bibliographies, New York and London, 1986, pp. 275-77.
• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, pp. 279, 377.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 175, repr. f.p. 176.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 101-05.
• Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 149, 195, 209, 211, 213, 286.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 43).
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. 121-22, 132.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 29.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, drawing repr. f.p. 90.

Books, General

• Bailey, Colin, Building the Frick Collection: An Introduction to the House And Its Collections, New York, 2006, p. 65.
• Doughty, Oswald & John Robert Wahl, eds, Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Oxford, 1967, vol. 3, p. 1307.
• Fredeman, William Evan, and ‎Roger C. Lewis (eds), The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 6, 1873-1874, Cambridge, 2002 (originally published 2006), p. 523.
• Art in The Frick Collection: Paintings, Sculpture, Decorative Arts, New York, 1996.
• Spencer, Robin, 'Whistler's First One-Man Exhibition Reconstructed' in: Gabriel P. Weisberg, Laurinda S. Dixon, and Antje Bultmann Lemke (eds), The Documented Image: Visions in Art History, Syracuse, New York, 1987, pp. 27-49.
• Wahl, Kimberley, Dressed As in a Painting: Women and British Aestheticism in an age of reform, Durham, NH, 2013.
• Nine letters to Th. Watts-Dunton from J. McN. Whistler, London, 1922, pp. 17-18.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Koss, Elaine (ed.), The Frick Collection: handbook of paintings, New York, 2004, p. 163.
• Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948, pp. 21-2 (drawings listed 98.24, 05.156-57, 08.195-97).
• The Frick Collection (ed.), Paintings: American, British, Dutch, Flemish and German,, vol. 1, Princeton, 1968, pp. 10-13.

EXHIBITION:

• Anon., The Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell Collection of Whistleriana shown in Division of Prints, Library of Congress, Washington, DC, 1921, p. 103 (not exhibited).
• Stoner, Joyce Hill, 'Materials for Immateriality', in Simpson, Marc, Like Breath on Glass: Whistler, Inness, and the Art of Painting Softly, Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA, 2008, pp. 91-109, at pp. 94-95; (not exhibited).
• Portraits, Pastels, Prints: Whistler in The Frick Collection, 2009, website at http://www.frick.org.
• Calloway, Stephen, and Lynn Federle Orr (eds), The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2011 (not exhibited).

Journals 1906-Present

• Abbott, K. (ed.) and Whistler, Anna McNeill, 'The Lady of the Portrait, Letters of Whistler’s Mother', Atlantic Monthly, vol. 136, 1925, pp. 310-28, at pp. 326-27.
• Blanche, Jacques-Émile, 'James McNeill Whistler', Renaissance Latine, vol. 4, no. 6, 15 June 1905, pp. 353-78, at p. 358.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Whistler: The Painting of the “Mother” ', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 85, February 1975, pp. 73-88, at pp. 76, 80.
• Nakanishi, Branka, 'A Symphony Reexamined: An Unpublished Study for Whistler's Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland', Museum Studies, Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 156-67, 189-91.
• Richardson, Edgar P., 'Sophisticates and Innocents Abroad', Art News, vol. 53, April 1954, pp. 20-23, 61-62, at p. 22.

Websites

• 'Symphony in Flesh Color and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland', The Frick Collection website at http://collections.frick.org.
• 'The Frick Collection', website at http://www.frick.org.
• Calvert, Robyne, 'Thank you, Mrs Leyland', Artistic Dress: Transgressive Fashion in the Victorian Era, 7 April 2012, blog at https://artisticdress.wordpress.com/2012/04/07.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 120).

Other

• Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.
• Stephanie L. Strother, 'Cat. 14 Study for “Arrangement in Black, No. 2: Portrait of Mrs. Louis Huth” (recto), c. 1872: Curatorial Entry,' in Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website (cat. no. 14).