The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2) dates from between 1872 and 1873. ¹

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2), private collection

It is dated from its relationship to the completed portrait, Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137.

Images

Subject

Titles

• 'Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2)' (1980, YMSM). ²

The numbering of the preferred title, 'Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2)', was given to distinguish it from Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (1) y133.

Description

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2), private collection

A portrait in vertical format, showing an elderly man sitting in profile to left. He has grey hair and a grey beard. He wears a black greatcoat and balances a black hat on his knee. There are framed pictures on the grey wall behind and to left of him, above the black dado.

Site

Whistler's studio in Lindsey Row, Chelsea.

Sitter

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881).

Comments

Like Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (1) y133, this sketch for the portrait of Thomas Carlyle (Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137) may be partly from the hand of Walter Greaves (1846-1930). It may have been started by Whistler but the head is not like his usual work.

Technique

Composition

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2), Private collection

Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle, Glasgow Museums

The canvas is narrower in proportion to its width than the finished portrait, Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137. Both the paintings in the background of Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2) y134 were originally much taller than those in Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle, although the lower one has been partly painted out. Further differences between this sketch and Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle are that in the sketch Carlyle's hat appears to have a square crown, and that the shadow and dado behind the figure come right down to the coat and the chair legs.

Technique

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2), private collection

Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2) y134 is painted over a dark brown ground, except for areas of pale blue to the left of the hat and at the top of the canvas, and some pink paint under the lower picture frame – suggesting that it, like Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (1) y133, was painted over an earlier composition.

Conservation History

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• After 1872/73: possibly in the collection of Henry Greaves (1843-1904) and Walter Greaves (1846-1930).
• About 1900: bought from E. Ellis (fl. 1900/1910), London, by L. O'Malley (fl. 1900/1910), London.
• 1978: acquired by Michael Parkin (1931- 2014), London art dealer;
• 1983: sold by the Parkin Gallery on 13 December 1983 to the Clarendon Gallery, London.
• 2017: present whereabouts unknown.

The provenance is obscure, and dubious. Both O'Malley and Ellis (see Young woman in a white dress y126b) were involved with works that may have been by Walter Greaves, and which were acquired by Messrs Dowdeswell in 1910.

Exhibitions

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. 134), plate 101, as 'Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (2)'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Henderson, Gavin, The Artists of the Yellow Book & the Circle of Oscar Wilde, Clarendon and Parkin Galleries, London, 1983.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• 'James Abbott McNeill Whistler: Sketch for the Portrait of Carlyle (I)', PubHist website at https://www.pubhist.com/w38875.

Portraits of Carlyle by others:

• 'Walter Greaves', National Galleries of Scotland website at https://www.nationalgalleries.org.
• 'Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) by Walter Greaves', National Trust at http://www.nationaltrustcollections.org.uk (acc. 2019).
• 'Thomas Carlyle', National Portrait Gallery website at http://www.npg.org.uk.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.