The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A portrait of Florence Leyland (1859-1921) may have been started in the early 1870s, but then destroyed or abandoned. Instead, a painting of another model, painted in the late 1870s, was reworked and became the extant Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, which was completed in or by 1884. ¹ In other words, a portrait of Florence Leyland may have been started on one canvas, and completed on another. Its history is, to say the least, confusing.

1871: Whistler was at Speke Hall, near Liverpool, from October-November 1871, painting a portrait of Frances Leyland (1834-1910) (Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106). On 29 November, Whistler's mother, Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881), wrote 'Mrs Leyland writes me of the Portrait he is taking of her that it is as life like as all think mine! It is life size & so is another of one of her daughters.' ² At this point, Mrs Leyland's daughter Florence would have been barely twelve years old, and it is not certain she was the sitter in question.

1872-1874: According to Whistler's biographers, the Pennells:

'At this same time Mr. Leyland gave Whistler commissions to paint his four children, Mrs. Leyland and himself. ... The big canvases travelled with him, backward and forward, between Speke Hall and London, and the sittings were continued in both places. They all sat to him. The children hated posing as much as they delighted in Whistler.' ³

Florence Leyland in a green and orange dress, The Hunterian

Florence Leyland in a purple dress, The Hunterian

It is likely that Florence was posing by about 1873, when Whistler drew the designs for a dress illustrated above: Florence Leyland in a green and orange dress m0523 and Florence Leyland in a purple dress m0524. Florence was almost certainly posing in September 1874 when Whistler's mother wrote, 'Jemie is now painting portraits at Speke Hall of two youthful daughters of the Leylands.' ⁴

1875: In May Whistler was staying with the Leylands at Speke Hall. On 12 May his mother wrote to Mrs Leyland:

'I hope my dear Jemie may soon finish the portraits at the Hall & be permitted to come home to work as he has been doing this week. Beg Elinor in pity to my loneliness to encourage & help the Artist, I know she is weary of him & of posing, but I am sure she & Flo & Jamie will be as anxious as we all are to have their likeness perfected.' ⁵

In September Whistler's mother reported: 'Jemie is rather closely confined to his Studio tho he has changes of scene & air at Speke Hall ... where he paints Portraits, as is now the case, at Speke, this bright & warmest season of our Summer.' ⁶

1876-1877: According to the Pennells, the sitter remembered that she had posed when she was seventeen or eighteen (that is, between 1876 and 1877). ⁷

1877: The portrait of Florence was incomplete at the time of Whistler's quarrel with her father, Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892). On 25 July 1877 Whistler drafted a letter to Leyland: 'A third portrait [for which you have paid me] needs further sittings - it is for you to determine whether it shall be completed or whether you shall receive it as it is.' ⁸ Leyland replied sarcastically:

'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, as also the third portrait in its unfinished state.' ⁹

1878: Walter Theodore Watts-Dunton (1832-1914) intervened, stating, '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.' ¹⁰ Whistler responded,

'With reference to the portrait of Miss Florence Leyland I have to say that it is incomplete simply because the young lady has not sufficiently sat for it - and as she is not to sit for it again, I must do what I can to make it as worthy of me as possible - When this is all accomplished, Leyland shall have it - for my "stock in trade" is my reputation, and it is not represented by Leyland's money.' ¹¹

However, Whistler may have abandoned the first portrait of Florence Leyland at this time.

In November 1878, during the Whistler v. Ruskin trial, Whistler stated that he had painted over a portrait that had been recently exhibited as 'Harmony in Amber and Black', 'with a view to alter it and change its character as a picture. It is in a transition state.' ¹²

The face of the model in 'Harmony in Amber and Black' may have been reworked to look like a portrait of Florence Leyland, and became the portrait under discussion here, Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland y107.

1879: The Pennells suggested that a canvas containing a portrait of Florence Leyland, possibly in a rubbed down condition, could have been acquired by a creditor, Thomas Way (1837-1915), at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879, but later returned to Whistler. ¹³

1879/1881:

Le Monde Elégant, November 1878

'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2', photograph signed ca 1881 Baltimore Museum of Art, 33.53.9055

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, Portland Museum of Art

Walking dresses in the fashions of 1878/1879 are compatible with the dress worn by Maud Franklin (1857-1939) in the painting seen in the photographs above, one of which was signed ca 1881 and inscribed ' ["]Arrangement in Grey and Black." No 2.' This portrait was apparently painted over. A portrait of Florence Leyland, in a slightly altered dress, appears to have been superimposed on the portrait of Franklin. It is in this revised version that the extant portrait, Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland y107, has survived.

1884: On 26 March 1884 Alan Summerly Cole (1846-1934) noted in his diary that he had visited Whistler in Tite Street and found him 'Painting (full length) portrait of girl with a round black hat', which might have been the portrait as it was in progress. ¹⁴ Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942) saw 'les Leyland', a series of arrangements 'en noir et brun' at Whistler's Tite Street studio about 1884. ¹⁵ These may have been Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F. R. Leyland y097 and the Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland. Both portraits were probably sent to F. R. Leyland at this time.

Images

Subject

Titles

The recorded titles reflect considerable changes in the portrait:

• 'Harmony in Amber and Black' (1877, Grosvenor Gallery). ¹⁶
• ' "Arrangement in Grey & Black," No 2' (ca 1881, Whistler). ¹⁷
• 'Portrait of Florence Leyland' (1910, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). ¹⁸
• 'Portraits of Maud (Destroyed)' and 'Florence Leyland' (1911, Pennell). ¹⁹
• 'Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland' (1980, YMSM). ²⁰

It has been convincingly argued that the portrait, in its original version, was exhibited as 'Harmony in Amber and Black' at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877. ²¹ This is discussed further under EXHIBITIONS.

'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2', photograph signed ca 1881, Baltimore Museum of Art, 33.53.9055

The title written by Whistler about 1881 on a photograph in the Lucas Collection, reproduced above, is misleading, because Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137 was exhibited under that title in 1874. Nevertheless the portrait of Florence Leyland in its original form may have been considered one of a series of 'Arrangements in Grey and Black'.

To avoid confusion, 'Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland' is the preferred title.

Description

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, Portland Art Museum, photograph, 1980

A full-length portrait in vertical format. It shows a young woman in a light grey dress with lighter grey ruff-like collar and cuffs, and a conspicuous black bow just above her waist. She wears a black hat with a grey feather, black jabots and gloves, and holds a handkerchief in her right hand. She stands against a black background.

Sitter

Florence Leyland (1859-1921), born on 2 September 1859, was the second oldest daughter of Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) and Frances Leyland (1834-1910). She married the subject painter Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1836-1904) in 1884.

Florence Leyland seated, The Hunterian

There are many pastel drawings of the sitter, including that illustrated above, most of them in the Freer Gallery of Art and the Hunterian, Glasgow, but none which relates to this portrait in its final state. A drypoint, dating from 1873 (Florence Leyland [136]), shows her still in short dresses.

'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2', photograph signed ca 1881, Baltimore Museum of Art 33.53.9055

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, Portland Art Museum, photograph 1980

When the break with Leyland occurred in 1876, she would have been seventeen. As it stands, the costume suggests a slightly later date. When Joseph Pennell (1860-1926) was in touch with Mrs Leyland in 1908, she said 'her daughter was tall at the time the picture was painted and about seventeen', but, Pennell wrote, 'I am still sure Maude's head rather than Miss Leyland's is on the figure.' ²² The photograph of the portrait in its incomplete state (cited above) was reproduced by the Pennells as a portrait of 'Maud' and the features were clearly at that time those of Maud Franklin (1857-1939). ²³ Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855-1936) checked with the sitter and her family on the portrait, in its later condition, and its history:

'October 14th, 1908. Called on Mrs. Leyland. ... I asked her especially about the picture in the Brooklyn Museum, which is catalogued as a portrait of Florence Leyland, and which Joseph, who has just seen it, thinks a portrait of Maud. She had forgotten it, thought that her children posed to Whistler only when quite young. But she asked Mrs. Val Prinsep, who says it is her portrait. She stood for it when she was seventeen or eighteen, and Mrs. Leyland's description of the dress and details agrees exactly with Joseph's. He is anxious to let Mr. Goodyear, the Curator of the Museum, know about it.' ²⁴

Technique

Composition

'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2', photograph signed ca 1881, Baltimore Museum of Art, 33.53.9055

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, Portland Art Museum, photograph 1980

The proportions of the photograph of a portrait of Maud Franklin reproduced above (22.3 x 10.0 cm) correspond to those of the oil Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland y107: the grain of the canvas shown in the photograph also confirms the identification. ²⁵

In November 1878, during the Whistler v. Ruskin trial, Whistler stated that he had 'painted over' the portrait exhibited as 'Harmony in Amber and Black' (that is, the painting underneath the portrait of Florence Leyland), 'with a view to alter it and change its character as a picture. It is in a transition state.' ²⁶

It seems possible that Whistler completely abandoned one portrait of Florence Leyland (one probably painted at some time between 1874 and 1876), and, after his quarrel with Leyland, altered the features of a portrait of Maud Franklin to make it resemble Florence Leyland. He also changed certain details: the black ribbon became larger, and a row of ruching was added to the collar, the ruff became smaller, the hat much smaller and perched on top of her head, and the young woman held a white handkerchief.

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, Portland Art Museum, photo 1980

Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

Furthermore, in its present form, Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland y107 shows almost exactly the same pose as a portrait of Millie Finch (fl. 1875-1885), Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch y237, and it is possible that, since she was also posing for Whistler in the early 1880s, the two compositions were related.

Technique

Painted thinly on medium coarse canvas, showing signs of rubbing down: it is very dark indeed.

Conservation History

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, photograph, 1950s

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, photograph, 1960s

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, photograph, 1980

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, Portland Museum of Art

It has obviously been rubbed down, probably by the artist, and possibly by others, and has also darkened over the years. Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) saw it on exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in 1910 and wrote to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) that it was in poor condition. ²⁷ In 1911 the Pennells described it as 'the very unfinished and unsatisfactory commencement of Florence Leyland.' ²⁸

Frame

It was in an 18th century type frame in the 1970s.

History

Provenance

• 1871/1874: the sitter's father, Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892) commissioned a portrait of his daughter Florence;
• 1876: the commissioned portrait of Florence Leyland was incomplete at the time of Whistler's quarrel with F. R. Leyland in 1876-1877.
• 1879: a partially destroyed portrait of Maud Franklin may have been among canvases acquired by the London printer Thomas Way (1837-1915) at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy;
• 1881: Way may have returned this canvas of Maud Franklin to Whistler;
• ca 1884: a portrait of Florence Leyland was painted over one of Maud Franklin and sent to F. R. Leyland;
• 1892: after the death of F. R. Leyland, passed to the sitter, Florence Leyland (1859-1921), then Mrs Val Prinsep;
• 1905: after the death of Valentine Cameron Prinsep (1836-1904) it was, according to Brooklyn Museum records, sold in 1905 through an agent to Obach, London dealers;
• 1906: bought from Obach's by Aaron Augustus Healy (1850-1921) for the Museum of Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, April 1906, with the support of the Museum Collection Fund of 1906, the Loeser and Hearn funds, and with assistance from E. L. Beers, Henry Harper Benedict (1844-1935), F. S. Benson, G. C. Brackett, C. H. de Silver, Aaron Augustus Healy (1850-1921), J. A. Mollenhauer, C. A. Schieren, and R. B. Woodward;
• 1950: de-accessioned through Knoedler, New York dealers (Knoedler labels #41819, 64266).
• 1950/1965: owned by private collectors, and, at some time, Hirschl & Adler, New York.
• 1965: Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, advertised it for sale in December 1965;
• 1967: presented by Mr and Mrs Benjamin Strouse (n/a), through Robert Schoelkopf and Leslie Katz of New York, to Portland Museum of Art, 21 December 1967.

It was commissioned, according to the Pennells, by the sitter's father, Frederick Richards Leyland, but was still incomplete at the time of Whistler's quarrel with Leyland in 1876-1877. It was suggested by the Pennells that this was among full-length portraits acquired by the London printer Thomas Way, one of Whistler's chief creditors in 1879:

'The bankruptcy was the opportunity for the greatest carelessness and, apparently, the greatest advantage was taken of it. Some years later on, Thomas Way gave him back one roll of large six-foot full-length portraits: the Sir Henry Cole, a Miss May Alexander, three Miss Leylands. One of these three is probably the painting in the Brooklyn Museum.' ²⁹

This may not be entirely accurate. Among the portraits listed by the Pennells, Portrait of Sir Henry Cole y180 did not survive, although Miss May Alexander y127 did, and another Leyland portrait, The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111 survived in fragmentary form. If the portrait of Florence Leyland was involved, it must have been returned very quickly, and may have been destroyed.

The extant portrait appears to have been painted on a second canvas, over what was originally a portrait of Maud Franklin, and was completed and returned to Leyland at some time in or after 1884, and certainly before Leyland's death in 1892.

The provenance thereafter is clear until 1950, when it was on the art market for several years until 1965, and two years later it was presented to the Portland Museum of Art.

Exhibitions

• 1877: probably I Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1877 (cat. no. 8) 'Harmony in Amber and Black'.

The provenance of the Portrait of Florence Leyland is not entirely clear, nor is its exhibition history. However it is possible that it was shown in its early state at the first summer exhibition of the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877 as a 'Harmony in Amber and Black'.

At that time Whistler exhibited two full-length portraits, listed as cat. no. 8, 'Harmony in Amber and Black' and cat. no. 9, 'Arrangement in Brown'. ³⁰ The portraits were described by Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) as sisters 'caught in a London fog', which suggests that the models looked similar, and that he did not like the dark effect of the paintings. ³¹ A review by William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) was more explicit, and it implied that the catalogue numbers were incorrect. The two 'life-sized full lengths', he commented,

'seem to have been inverted in the numbering of the catalogue; or else what Mr Whistler regards as amber and black appears to the unpurged popular eye more like brown, and vice versa. The picture which we accept as the Brown has considerable grace, but it is hardly equal to the Amber and Black - a blonde lady in white muslin with black bows, and some yellow flowers in the corner'. ³²

Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket, Worcester Art Museum

Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour, Fogg Art Museum

The 1980 catalogue raisonné suggested incorrectly that 'Harmony in Amber and Black' was Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket y181, and the 'Arrangement in Brown' was Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour y131, basing this partly on Whistler's admission that he had repainted the 'Harmony in Amber and Black'. ³³ Arrangement in Black and Brown: The Fur Jacket y181 was indeed exhibited, but as the 'Arrangement in Brown'. If, as implied by Wilde, the same model posed for both portraits, then the model for both was Maud Franklin (1857-1939).

Harmony in Grey and Peach Colour y131 corresponds at least in part to Rossetti's description of a 'Harmony in Amber and Black' and is an early portrait of Maud Franklin. She wears a white dress trimmed with grey and black, with traces of a black bow at the front, and there are other black details, a grey wall, and accessories and flowers that can just about be considered pale 'amber' (or 'peach').

Photograph inscribed 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2', ca 1879

Linda Merrill, in her excellent reconstruction of the events preceding the Whistler v. Ruskin trial, suggested that the work shown in 1877 as 'Harmony in Amber and Black' was the painting now known as Portrait of Florence Leyland. ³⁴ The white dress, the black bow (not bows), and the dark background that appear in the portrait, as seen in the photograph above, correspond roughly to the descriptions by Rossetti and Wilde. Merrill suggests that the features of Maud Franklin were superimposed on the Portrait of Florence Leyland in time for the exhibition, but also notes that the 'amber' of the Grosvenor title appears to be missing.

Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland, digital image with intensified colours, 2018

However, the extant painting has been so much rubbed down and repainted that the 'amber' could lurk under the darkness that now swallows up so much of the detail in the completed painting. An image with intensified colour, reproduced above, may be closer to its original colour.

Finally, it is quite possible that the portrait of Maud Franklin exhibited in 1877 as 'Harmony in Amber and Black' was repainted after the exhibition, and the features of Florence Leyland were imposed after 1878, possibly at the time of the photographs of ca 1881, and possibly based on a portrait of Florence on an earlier canvas that was not in a fit state to be passed to Leyland.

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. 107) as 'Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland', plates 73, 388.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. nos. 522-30).
• Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, website at http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk (G.136).

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Probably I Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1877 (cat. no. 8) 'Harmony in Amber and Black'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Taylor, Tom, 'The Grosvenor Gallery', The Graphic, London, 12 May 1877.

Journals 1855-1905

• [Rossetti, William Michael], 'Notes on Art and Archaeology', The Academy: A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art, new series, no. 11, 17 February 1877, pp. 147-48.
• Wilde, Oscar, 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Dublin University Magazine, vol. 90, no. 535, July 1877, pp. 118-26, at p. 124.
• Blanche, Jacques-Émile, 'James McNeill Whistler', Renaissance Latine, vol. 4, no. 6, 15 June 1905, pp. 353-78, at p. 358.

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. 482).
• Glazer, Lee, Emily Jacobsen, Blyth McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor. Lovely Little Games, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2019, p. 195, repr.
• Hartmann, Sadakichi C. (pseudonym of Sidney Allen), The Whistler Book: A Monograph of the Life and Position in Art of James McNeill Whistler, Together with a Careful Study of His More Important Works, Boston, 1910, p. 129.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 71.
• Merrill, Linda, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in 'Whistler v. Ruskin', Washington and London, 1992, pp. 40-43.
• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, pp. 127, 139, 141-42, 209, 278-79, fig. 3.29.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 175-76.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, p. 428, repr. f.p. 264 as 'Portraits of Maud (Destroyed)'.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, pp. 105, 134.
• Watts-Dunton, Theodore, Nine letters to Th. Watts-Dunton from J. McN. Whistler, London, 1922, p. 17.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Goodyear, William and A. D. Savage, Catalogue of Paintings, The Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, Brooklyn, 1910, p. 86 (cat. no. 503).

EXHIBITION:

• Paintings in Oil and Pastel by James McNeill Whistler, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1910 (cat. no. 14) as 'Portrait of Florence Leyland'.

Journals 1906-Present

• Goodyear, William H., Museum News, Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, vol. 2, no. 3, December 1906, pp. 37-43.
• 'Museum Notes', International Studio, February 1907, p. cxii, repr. p. cxiii.
• International Studio, February 1921, pp. cxxi, cxxv.
• Sale advert, Robert Schoelkopf Gallery, New York, Burlington Magazine, December 1965, p. xx.

Websites

• Portland Museum of Art website at http://collections.portlandmuseum.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 121).

Other

• Merrill, Linda, mss, Portland Museum archives, 1988.