The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler dates from 1872/1873. ¹

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter, Detroit Institute of Arts

This date is suggested on the basis of stylistic affinity with Whistler's Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter y122, which was first exhibited in 1872. It is possible that the two portraits were intended as a gift either to his brother or to their mother, Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881). If the painting was in Mrs Whistler's possession and returned to the artist on her death in 1881, it might explain an obscure reference in an undated letter from Whistler that implied the "portrait of 'mon frère' " was in his studio later in the 1880s, possibly together with his self-portrait. ²

Dr William McNeill Whistler, photograph, 1862/1864, GUL PH1/152

The Pennells, writing in 1908, related the Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler, from the point of view of costume and technique, to the Portrait of Luke A. Ionides y032, which was painted in 1860. ³ In fact the technique is totally different, and in any case this early date is clearly impossible because the sitter was then in America (the photograph above shows him in Confederate uniform). Nor is Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler technically consistent with Whistler's work in 1865, at the time of Dr Whistler's arrival in London.

Images

Subject

Titles

One title predominates, as follows:

• 'Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler' (1905, ISSPG). ⁴
• 'Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler (Portrait of My Brother)' (1969, Art Institute of Chicago). ⁵
• 'Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

'Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler' is the preferred title.

Description

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago

A half length portrait of a man in three-quarter view to right. He wears a pale grey jacket, a short black cravat, a white shirt, and a round brimmed black hat. His hair is dark brown and curly, with a white curl on his forehead suggesting that he, like his artist brother and half-sister, Deborah, shared a genetic mutation called the Waardenburg syndrome. The background is a greyish ochre. The canvas is in vertical format.

Sitter

The artist's younger brother, William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900), was a medical officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War. In 1865 he was sent to England to deliver despatches and never returned to America again. After travel in Russia, he worked first in Paris, and afterwards in London at St George's Hospital. As a specialist in diseases 'of the upper air passages', he was appointed physician to the Hospital for Diseases of the Throat. In 1886, he took an active part in founding the London Throat Hospital, of which he was senior physician until his death. ⁷ In 1877 he married Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917), of the wealthy Greek Ionides family, who were patrons of Whistler.

Fradelle, Dr William McNeill Whistler, photograph, 1885/1895, GUL Whistler PH 1/150

A photograph, reproduced above, shows his appearance in later life. Two lithographs by Whistler of his brother The Doctor c110 and Portrait of Dr Whistler, No. 2 c111, dating from 1895, are not related to the oil portrait.

Technique

Composition

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter, Detroit Institute of Arts

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler y123 may have been a pair with Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter y122, and shares a similar format, colour, and even dress. Neither appear to be finished.

Recent research at the Art Institute of Chicago has revealed that it was painted over another painting. There are traces of bright colours underneath including red paint under the sitter's jacket, blue and white at the lower right corner, and some barium yellow and Naples yellow. It is not possible to identify the subject. ⁸

Technique

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago

The medium and technique have been analysed by Kimberley Muir at the Art Institute of Chicago. ⁹ The portrait was painted on an oak panel ca 1 cm thick, with a vertical grain. The underlying painting was presumably rubbed and scraped down, and several layers of paint roughly applied over it, starting with off-white paint containing lead white with barium sulfate and traces of vermilion and bone black, then a further off-white layer that serves as the ground for the portrait and is visible in many areas. Muir notes that the colours used included, but are not necessarily limited to, 'lead white, cadmium yellow, iron oxide or earth pigments, umber, vermilion, cobalt blue, and bone black.'

The paint is thin, painted wet-in-wet, and and has been rubbed and scrubbed, leaving areas of wood and undercoat visible. The face is carefully painted, with many criss-crossing brush-strokes. A little curl of white on his forehead, just visible in the vigorously painted brown hair, suggests that he had a white lock similar to that of Whistler. The jacket and cravat were painted broadly, with a square ended broad brush, but with very little paint. The portrait does not appear to be finished, although there are some fluid brushstrokes, particularly along the lower edge, as if the artist was trying to tidy it up.

Conservation History

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler, photograph by W. E. Gray, London

There are numerous scratches and abrasions, which appear in early photographs, and probably occurred at a early date, possibly at the time of Whistler's bankruptcy in 1879.

The condition of the painting is discussed by Kimberley Muir in the Art Institute of Chicago online catalogue, and she notes that despite some evidence of early rough treatment, and uneven cleaning, it is in good condition, and has an 'overall natural-resin varnish layer, which imparts a soft, matte sheen'. ¹⁰

Frame

Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago

A Whistler-style slope frame, dating from about the 1950s. ¹¹

History

Provenance

• 1900: possibly bequeathed by William McNeill Whistler (1836-1900) to his wife, Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917);
• 1909/1911: sold by Helen Euphrosyne Whistler.
• 1911: Burton Mansfield (1856-1932), New Haven;
• 1918: bought by Robert G. Vose Galleries, Boston dealers, 19 October 1918;
• 1919: sold to William T. Cresmer (fl. 1916/1955), Chicago, 28 January 1919;
• Date unknown: sold by Cresmer to the Anderson Art Galleries, Chicago;
• Date unknown: sold by them to Mrs Moses J. Wentworth (1862-1935), Chicago;
• 1935: passed by family succession to her son, John Wentworth (d. 1958), and his widow, Mrs John Wentworth (d. 1977), Chicago and Paris;
• 1977: passed after her death in July 1977 to her estate;
• 1978: given by the executors of her estate to the Art Institute of Chicago.

It may have been given by Whistler to the sitter, William McNeill Whistler, or their mother, Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881). It was certainly in the possession of William's widow, Helen E. Whistler, by 1903, according to Way & Dennis. ¹² In 1909 it was offered for sale to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, who thought 'It was once a very charming sketch but it has received a lot of hard usage', and returned it to London. ¹³ According to the Pennells, it was still in Helen E. Whistler's possession in February 1909. ¹⁴ However it was sold at some time around then. By 1911 it was owned by Burton Mansfield, and he lent it to an exhibition in Pittsburgh (cat. no. 71). Thereafter the provenance is fairly clear, though precise dates are not known, until it entered the Art Institute of Chicago in 1978.

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. 103) as 'Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler'.

It was not, as far as is known, 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. 123), plate 76, as 'Portrait of Dr William McNeill Whistler'.
• Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998 (C.110-11).

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 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. 103) as 'Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Whistler Exhibition', Dundee Courier, Dundee, 28 February 1905, p. 4.

Journals 1855-1905

• British Medical Journal, 10 March 1900, pp. 613-14.

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, p. 222 (cat. no. 446).
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 133.
• Pennell, Joseph, Etchers and Etching: Chapters in the History of the Art Together with Technical Explanations of Modern Artistic Methods, London, 1920, p. 95.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 113.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 56).
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, p. 40, repr. f.p. 40.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, pp. 60-62.

Books, General

• Shaw, ‎Nancy Rivard, and Mary Black, American Paintings in the Detroit Institute of Arts: Works by artists born 1816-1847, Detroit, 1997, p. 237.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Loan Exhibition of Paintings in Oil, Water Colour, and Pastel, from the Collection of Mr Burton Mansfield of New Haven, Conn., Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1911 (cat. no. 71).
• Sweet, Frederick A., James McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, 1968 (cat. no. 18), as 'Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler (Portrait of My Brother)'.

Journals 1906-Present

• Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago, vol. 73, no. 3, May-June 1979, pp. 10-11, repr.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Art Institute of Chicago website at http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/111478 (acc. 2019).
• 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.
• Strother, Stephanie L., 'Cat. 12 Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler, 1871/73: Curatorial Entry,' in Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, URL.
• Muir, Kimberley, 'Cat. 12 Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler, 1871/73: Technical Summary,' in Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, URL.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 26) 'Portrait of Dr. William McNeill Whistler'.

Other

• None.