The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist dates from between 1877 and 1879. ¹

1876: According to the Pennells (writing in 1908), the portrait of Connie Gilchrist (1864-1946) was painted 'or at least begun' in 1876. ²

1877: Lily Langtry (1853-1929) saw the portrait in Whistler's studio and told Whistler, 'I have seen Connie Gilchrist but once, but I am sure it is hers. Nobody but you could have done it so beautifully.' ³

1879: It was seen and described in Whistler's White House studio in March 1879 by a New York Herald journalist. ⁴ It was also exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879 (cat. no. 55) and was presumably considered finished by Whistler at that time.

1881/1884: However, he seems to have changed his mind, and later told the owner, Henry Du Pré Labouchere (1831-1912) that he wished to work on it further, although, according to the Pennells, he actually wanted to destroy it. ⁵

1884: Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942) said that he saw it in Whistler's Tite Street studio in 1884. ⁶ Unfortunately his dating is not entirely reliable.

Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist, Metropolitan Museum of Art

1890-1903: Labouchere said, after Whistler had kept it for ten years, 'He is still not sufficiently satisfied with it to return my picture, and I don't expect ever to see it again.' ⁷ It was still in Whistler's studio at the time of his death, in 1903, and was later returned to the owner.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'The Gold Girl: a harmony in Yellow & Gold.' (1878/1879, C. A. Howell).
• 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold – The Gold Girl – Portrait of Miss Connie Gilchrist' (1879, Grosvenor). ⁸
• 'The Gold Girl' (1879, London Bankruptcy Court). ⁹
• 'Connie Gilchrist, dancing with a skipping rope, styled "A Girl in Gold" ' (1880, Sotheby's). ¹⁰
• 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist' (1980, YMSM). ¹¹

'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist' is the preferred title.

Description

Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist, Metropolitan Museum of Art

A figure composition in vertical format, showing a young girl dressed in a short tunic, with a skipping rope, skipping on stage in front of a curtain. She faces three-quarter right.

Sitter

Samuel Alex Walker, Connie Gilchrist, 1880, carte de visite, V&A S.135:398-2007

Connie Gilchrist (1864-1946). She also posed for The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist y207. She was a professional dancer as well as a professional model, being paid for modelling. ¹²

Technique

Composition

Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist', Blackburn 1879

Four drawings of Connie Gilchrist, related to this painting, are recorded. Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist' m0709, reproduced above, which was published in Blackburn 1879 [more], may have been done for reproduction by another hand.

Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist' , British Museum

Connie Gilchrist, Baltimore Museum of Art

Others may be studies done in preparation or drawings by Whistler after the painting: Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist' m0710, now in the British Museum; Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist' m0711, which has not been located; and Connie Gilchrist m0712 in the Lucas Collection, Baltimore. They are more lively than the painting, conveying the movement of the figure with curving, broken lines, in a much more effective manner than does the painting.

Technique

Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist, Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is on a fine canvas that has been lined with a fine weave canvas, but the glue lining has caused some blisters or dimpling. The stretcher has a Blanchet stamp, and the canvas may have been acquired in Paris. There are some scumbled semi-opaque layers of blue and dark purple paint. The colour may have changed, with the purplish-red pigment fading, while the yellow tones in the lower half of the painting were probably stronger (they are stronger in the area protected by the rebate of the picture frame). ¹³

After it was bought by Henry Du Pré Labouchere (1831-1912) in 1879 he let Whistler have it back 'to work on it' but, according to the Pennells, Whistler 'had not touched the canvas' but wanted to destroy it. ¹⁴ Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942) claimed that he saw the painting in Whistler's Tite Street studio in 1884. ¹⁵ Labouchere said, after Whistler had kept it for ten years, 'He is still not sufficiently satisfied with it to return my picture, and I don't expect ever to see it again'. ¹⁶

Frame

1879: Whistler probably had it framed for the Grosvenor Gallery exhibition in 1879, when he wrote to the frame-maker, Henry John Murcott (1835-1910):

'I want a large frame regilded and should [sic] it might be easily done here - instead of bothering about removing the frame and bringing it back in a van - If you can manage this, please send down a gilder the first thing tomorrow morning - Let him bring very yellow gold - not at all red - and plenty of it - for the frame is at least 7 feet long - Of course he would bring whatever he might want in the way of washes to clean the frame - and perhaps he might have to scrape it -

Also can you knock me up a large frame in 10 days - for the Grosvenor? - no matter how roughly - always the same pattern - if so let your man come tomorrow morning by 10 o'clock - and take the measure.' ¹⁷

It is not certain whether this was the picture regilded or reframed, but it was the largest he exhibited at the Grosvenor in 1879. In any case, this frame has not been located.

1892: Reframed by Frederick Henry Grau (1859-1892). It bears the partial label of Grau's firm.

1900: The Flat Whistler frame of 1892 was altered ca 1900. ¹⁸

1898/1903: At some point after 1898, but most likely in 1903, Whistler’s sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip, compiled a brief list of works in the studio and their value (possibly for insurance or probate). The last article listed on this document reads: "Outside measurement of the frame of ‘Connie Gilchrist’ 97 by 56 ½." ¹⁹ It is likely that this was written immediately before the painting was returned to the owner. The measurements given by Birnie Philip almost directly correspond to the dimensions of the current frame.

History

Provenance

• 1879: 'The Gold Girl' was declared among Whistler's assets by the London Bankruptcy Court;
• 1880, 12 February: sold at auction, Whistler's bankruptcy sale, Sotheby's, London, 12 February 1880 (lot 87) as 'Oil Painting (life size) of Connie Gilchrist, dancing with a skipping rope, styled "A Girl in Gold" ', and bought for 50 guineas (£52.10.0), 'Wilkinson' being named as the purchaser;
• 1880, 16 April: bought by Henry Du Pré Labouchere (1831-1912) for £63.0.0, and returned to Whistler for further work;
• 1903: in Whistler's studio for some years until his death, when it was returned by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) to Labouchere;
• 1903: sold by Labouchere;
• 1903/1905: it was 'handed over to the care' of Robert Ross (dates unknown), then running the Carfax Gallery.
• 1909: lent anonymously to ISSPG exhibition in London in 1909 (cat. no. 130) as 'The Gold Girl (Connie Gilchrist)';
• 1910: acquired from Knoedler, New York art dealers, by George Arnold Hearn (1835-1913) in May 1910;
• 1911: given by G. A. Hearn to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The complicated provenance given above has a few gaps. However, during Whistler's lifetime there is additional documentation. On 25 August 1879 Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) asked Whistler to 'state distinctly and in writing what you will give in work if I secure for you - the Connie', from Whistler's bankrupt estate. ²⁰ It seems he was unable to buy it. And, at Whistler's bankruptcy, it was declared as one of his assets, sold at auction, and afterwards bought by Labouchere for £63.0.0. ²¹ Labouchere almost immediately let Whistler have it back 'to work on it' but, according to the Pennells, Whistler 'had not touched the canvas' but wanted to destroy it. ²²

At some time after this, Labouchere apparently thought of selling it, and Whistler offered to buy it:

"My dear Statesman & Decorator! -

Mrs Labouchère tells me you are going to sell the Connie - and it is proposed that Mr [Horace?] Webster is to hang her on his walls -

It would grieve me that the picture should go from yours into any other hands but my own -

Let me buy it and give you the money that you ... ask him for it -

... Or I will tell you what would be really the thing to do, If her Mama likes the idea, I will paint you a full length picture of little Miss Dorothy Labouchère -

This I should be charmed to do - and you would start in your new Palace as a great 'Art Patron'! " ²³

This letter is undated, but the picture was apparently seen in Whistler's studio in 1884, and it was still in the studio at the time of his death in 1903, when it was returned by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) to Labouchere, who then sold it.

It was 'handed over to the care of Robert Ross, who was then running the Carfax Gallery' who hung it 'for a while' in his house in Sheffield Gardens. ²⁴

Exhibitions

• 1879: III Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1879 (cat. no. 55) as 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold – The Gold Girl – Portrait of Miss Connie Gilchrist'.

Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist', Blackburn 1879

It was first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1879. Early reviews suggest that the impression of movement – rarely attempted by Whistler – and the realism of the pose were considered satisfactory by some art critics. For instance, Charles E. Pascoe (b. 1877) thought it 'capital':

'It is neither more nor less, however, than a very good full-length of a rather pretty, flaxen-haired girl of sixteen, in light-brown dress, and black-silk stockings, skipping. Mr Whistler's "Harmony" forms in this instance a common-sense and lifelike portrait with neither hazy light nor incomprehensible misty effects.' ²⁵

A caricature in the Mask, 'A Gaiety in Gilt ... Connie soit qui mal y pense', showed Connie confronting an enormous butterfly loosely based on Whistler's monogram. ²⁶ However, the painting aroused mixed feelings. The Art Journal thought it was 'not carried far enough', and The Athenaeum considered it 'badly drawn and ill balanced'. ²⁷

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) visited the show with Mrs Henry Addams, who suggested that the artist was insane, and the writer Anne Benson Procter (1799-1888) wrote:

'He has a Picture in the Grosvenor that would disgrace any Man. a figure size of life - a girl dancing - She has flesh coloured stockings & yellow boots - and a very short jacket - I do not share its indecency & I [abominate?] uglyness.' ²⁸

Later critics joined the Pennells in thinking the painting, in its final state, a failure. ²⁹

Exhibitions after Whistler's death are not fully documented. According to William Christian Symons (1845-1911), it was exhibited at the Carfax Gallery in November 1905. ³⁰ It was lent anonymously to the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1909 (cat. no. 130) as 'The Gold Girl (Connie Gilchrist).' In the following year it was apparently exhibited at Knoedler's in New York (but not included in the catalogue). Years later, it was on loan to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, from 1947-1950, and to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, at the Waldorf Towers, New York, in 1964.

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. 190), plate 129, as 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl – Connie Gilchrist'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• III Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1879 (cat. no. 55) as 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold – The Gold Girl – Portrait of Miss Connie Gilchrist'.
• Carfax Gallery, London, 1905.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Glasgow Herald, Glasgow, 1 May 1879, p. 4.
• Anon., 'Opening of the Grosvenor Gallery', North British Daily, Lanarkshire, 1 May 1879, pp. 4-5.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', London Evening Standard, 1 May 1879, p. 2.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Leeds Mercury, Leeds, 2 May 1879, p. 8.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery' and 'Theatrical Gossip', The Era, London, 4 May 1879, pp. 3, 6.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery' and 'Circular Notes', Freeman's Journal, London, 8 May 1879, p. 6.
• Anon., 'Sporting Notes', Sporting Times, London, 10 May 1879, p. 1-3.
• Anon., 'Fashion at the The Grosvenor Gallery', Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, London, 24 May 1879, p. 6.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 26 May 1879, p. 4.
• Anon., 'Personal and Society Gossip', Sheffield Independent, Sheffield, 31 May 1879, p. 10.
• 'An occasional correspondent', 'Relics of Lord Byron. An Interesting sale in London', New York Daily Tribune, New York, 13 March 1880, p. 6.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery Exhibition', The Athenaeum, no. 2689, 10 May 1879, pp. 606-08, at p. 607.
• Blackburn, Henry, Grosvenor Notes, London, 1879, drawing repr. p. 24.
• Anon., Mask, vol. 2, 17 May 1879, caricature repr. p. 4.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Art Journal, vol. 18, July 1879, pp. 135-36, at p. 136.
• Pascoe, C. E., Art Journal, New York, vol. 5, July 1879, p. 224.
• Anon., Collector, vol. 3, 15 April 1892, p. 182.
• Sickert, B., Burlington Magazine, vol. 6, March 1905, p. 434.
• Sickert, W. S., 'Pictures of Actors', The Speaker, 29 May 1897.
• Singer, Hans Wolfgang, James Mc.N. [sic] Whistler, Die Kunst, Berlin, vol. 19, 1905 , p. 82, no. 19.
• Blanche, Jacques-Émile, 'James McNeill Whistler', Renaissance Latine, vol. 4, no. 6, 15 June 1905, pp. 353-78, at p. 358.
• Symons, Arthur, 'Whistler at the Carfax Gallery', Outlook, 4 November 1905, pp. 626-27, at p. 626.

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. 490).
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 201-02, 259-60, repr. with pen study, f.p. 259; vol. 2, p. 23.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 183.
• Rutter, Frank Francis Vane Phipson, James McNeill Whistler: an Estimate and a Biography, London, 1911, pp. 61, 81-83.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 160 (cat. no. 69).
• Singletary, Suzanne M., James McNeill Whistler and France: A Dialogue in Paint, Poetry, and Music, London and New York, 2017, p. 154.
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. 150, 171, 202.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 25.
• Weintraub, Stanley, Whistler: A Biography, London, 1974, pp. 164-65.

Books, General

• Bryant, Lorinda Munson, American Pictures and Their Painters, New York, 1917, p. 97, repr. fig. 57.
• Hollingshead, John, Good old Gaiety, London, 1903, photograph of sitter repr. f.p. 38.
• Jiminez, Jill Berk (ed.), Dictionary of Artists' Models, 2013, p. 222.
• Langtry, Lily, The Days I Knew, London, 1925, pp. 66-76.
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, p. 173.
• Symons, Arthur, Studies on Modern Painters, New York, 1925, pp. 47-50.
• Tharp, Louise Hall, Mrs. Jack: A Biography of Isabella Stewart Gardner, Boston 1965, p. 62.
• Vuillier, Gaston, A History of Dancing from the Earliest Ages to our own Times ..., New York, 1898, p. vii, repr. f.p. 412.
• Ward, Edwin A., Recollections of a Savage, London, 1923, p. 263.
• Weinberg, Helene Barbara, American Impressionism and Realism, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2009, p. 381.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Burroughs, Bryson, Catalogue of paintings, New York, 1911, pp. 66, 69, repr. p. 68.
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, George A Hearn Gift to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1913, repr. p. 65.
• Feld, Stuart P., and Albert Ten Eyck Gardner, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Vol. 2, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845, New York, 1965, pp. 376-77.
• Luhrs, Kathleen (ed.), American paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 2, pp. 373-78, repr. p. 374.

EXHIBITION:

• Fair Women, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, London, 1909 (cat. no. 130).
• Paintings in oil and pastel by James McNeill Whistler, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1910 (ex. cat.).
• 100 Years of American Painting, Utah Centennial Exhibition, Salt Lake City, 1947 (cat. no. 17).
• Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 40).
• American Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art and M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1966 (cat. no. 99).
• Sweet, Frederick A. (ed.), James McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY, 1968 (cat. no. 26).
• Spencer, Robin, James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), Nationalgalerie, Berlin, 1969 (cat. no. 28).
• Casteras, Susan P., and Colleen Denney, The Grosvenor Gallery: A Palace of Art in Victorian England, New Haven, 1996 (cat. no. 66).
• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, p. 108 (not exhibited).
• Ono, Ayako (ed.), ホイッスラー展. James McNeill Whistler Retrospective, Tokyo, 2014 (cat. no. 22).

Journals 1906-Present

• American Art News, vol. 8, 14 May 1910, repr. p. 1.
• Anon., ‘Two Portraits by Whistler’, Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 5, June 1910, p. 132.
• Pennell, Joseph, 'The Forty Undiscovered Whistlers', International Studio, vol. 72, February 1921, pp. cv-cxiii, drawing repr. p. cxi.
• Murray, Donald M., 'James and Whistler at the Grosvenor Gallery, American Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 1, Spring 1952, pp. 49-65.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• 'Another Whistler on view; Metropolitan's "Irving as Philip II of Spain" Surprise to Visitors', New York Times, New York, 13 May 1910.

Websites

• Heilbrunn, Timeline of Art History , The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, website at http://www.metmuseum.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 138).

Other

• Ferber, L. S., William Trost Richards (1833-1905), Ph.D, Columbia University, NY, pp. 308-09.
• Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.