The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Gold Ruff probably dates from between 1885 and 1895. It is difficult to date by technique because of the deterioration of the paint surface.

J. Whistler, The Gold Ruff, The Hunterian

The panel itself is close in size to several paintings, including The Rose Scarf y390, The Sea, Pourville, No. 1 y516 and Howth Head, near Dublin y538. Of these, The Rose Scarf – which is on a very similar panel, with similar ground – has been dated about 1890, The Sea, Pourville, No. 1 dates from the late 1890s and Howth Head, near Dublin, 1900.

The dress provides clues but some vital details are hard to distinguish. If anything it suggests a wider date range. The skirt is wide, which excludes fashionable dress of the late 1870s. The sleeves, though elaborate, are not extreme "leg o'mutton" sleeves, and this might (but does not entirely) exclude the period of 1893-1895. Broad lace collars were very common, but ruffs of this size and type (perhaps a gold mesh or chiffon with lace-type edging) were far less usual. However, a variety of ruffs are seen over a fairly wide period.

W. Greaves, The Green Dress, Tate NO4599

Whistler's pupil (follower, admirer) Walter Greaves (1846-1930) painted his sister Alice Foy Greaves (1852-1921) in The Green Dress (Tate Britain), which is said to date from about 1875, but even this date is not certain. Alice's dress is thought to be a Victorian revival of Elizabethan dress, and has a lightly boned broad lace ruff supported by widely spaced stiffeners, and elaborate sleeves with layers of lace trimming. These details are somewhat comparable but not exactly like those seen in The Gold Ruff.

'Who'd have thought it?' Punch, 13 June 1885, p. 286

Fancy dress – as in a 'Mary Queen of Scots' costume in a Punch cartoon of June 1885 – is an obvious source of extravagant costumes with broad stiffened ruffs. A bright pink dress worn by Queen Maud of Norway to the Duchess of Devonshire's fancy dress ball in 1897 features slashed sleeves and a fine upstanding lace collar. ¹

Elaborate half- or three-quarter length sleeves were fairly common on evening and fancy dress. Examples are seen in Carolus-Duran's portrait of Queen Maria Pia of Portugal (Palacio Nacional da Ajuda, Lisbon, Portugal), and a silk and satin evening dress by Frederick Worth dating from ca 1881, with elaborate three-quarter length sleeves trimmed with lace and ribbons as well as a modest upstanding frill at the neck. ²

Linley Sambourne, 'Betrothal of Princess Beatrice', Punch, 10 January 1885

The dramatic appearance of Whistler's dress suggests it may have been influenced by the revivals of Renaissance or Elizabethan dress. A cartoon by Edward Linley Sambourne (1844-1910), the Betrothal of Princess Beatrice (1885), equates her with Shakespeare's Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, wearing mock-Elizabethan attire including an upstanding ruff – not as broad as Whistler's one, but still noticeable – and gathered and slashed sleeves, but with the fashionable addition of a bustle and a vast amount of drapery in the skirt. ³

Indeed, the dress in The Gold Ruff may literally have been a dramatic costume. Ellen Terry (1847-1928) wore spectacular ruffles and lace in several roles, including that of Letitia Hardy in Hannah Cowley's play, The Belle's Stratagem, and – more modestly – as Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. ⁴

'Myrbach', Marion Delorme, Revue Illustrée, vol. 1, 1885-1886

Similarly, Sara Bernhardt (1844-1923) wore layers of lace and ruffs for her role in Victor Hugo's swashbuckling drama Marion Delorme in 1886. The Revue Illustrée shows her in a dress with half-length puffed and gathered sleeves, wide panelled skirts, a narrow belt, a fitted bodice with a square lace-trimmed neckline, and a broad wired lace ruff. ⁵

A later period can not be entirely excluded: in the years from 1893-1896, the expansion of sleeve width that produced "leg o'mutton" sleeves was matched by a gradual expansion of collar and ruff sizes, and the collar in The Gold Ruff may reflect this fashion, even though the sleeves do not. A 'Toilette de soirée de Mme Lipmann' created in 1893 for a passing princess ('une très élégante et très gracieuse Altesse royale') shows a very deep v-shaped corsage – another reference to Elizabethan dress – trimmed with 'pointe de Venise' (Venetian lace) that stands up like small wings at the back. ⁶

It was quite common for mantles and cloaks to have broad collars constructed from several layers of material gathered around the neck so that they waved attractively, setting off a blouse or dress with a smaller ruff or layers of lace at the neck. For example, the appropriate costume for a walk in the park on a fine Spring morning in 1893 was 'Capote de printemps de Mme Julia' with 'Petit collet de Mme Pelletier-Vidal' – close-fitting collars described as 'excentriques' – and a ridiculously tiny hat decorated with spring flowers. ⁷ It was less common to see this effect on a dress: lavish collars, yes, broad upstanding gold lace collars or ruffs, no.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's own title is not known. Only one title is recorded, 'The Gold Ruff', as in the following examples:

• 'The Gold Ruff' (1915, Colnaghi). ⁸
• 'The Gold Ruff' (1980, YMSM). ⁹

Description

The Gold Ruff, The Hunterian

A woman seated on a sofa, painted on a vertical panel. She sits with her body turned slightly to the left (her right), her face turned to her left. Her dark brown hair is piled high, and she has a short curly fringe. Her left hand is to her side, resting on the seat, possibly holding a cloak or boa, or other clothing. Her right arm, extended, appears to be holding a black hat or cloak. She wears a black dress with a full skirt, a thin gold belt tied loosely round her waist. Round her neck is a broad gold ruff, and a pale cream scarf or blouse shows under her chin, possibly under a v-shaped neckline that may be trimmed with lace. Elaborately gathered or slashed black elbow-length sleeves are just visible over puffed or gathered white, cream and gold frills. The sofa has a curving S-shaped back; in the background are dark khaki-brown curtains.

Sitter

The sitter has not been identified. It is possible, given the dramatic nature of the costume, that she was an actress.

Technique

Technique

The Gold Ruff, The Hunterian

The priming appears to be a thin white layer, applied with vertical brushstrokes, and there is no obvious imprimatura. ¹⁰

Under the left arm there is a horizontal line that could suggest squaring-up, and, a few strokes below this, what might be an outline for the drapery on the sofa, though the paint does not follow it. These lines look like graphite pencil. ¹¹ The colour was painted in thinly at first. The model's right leg was originally further left and her dress was longer and more full. Another layer of colour was painted more boldly on top. The woman's face – painted with a small pointed brush – was never finished.

The bodied appearance and retained brushstrokes of paint for the background, sofa or bed, and black dress have the appearance of paint mixed with megilp, a paint modifier that facilitated both thin glazes and thick application, while providing transparency and gloss. This was made from oil (often linseed oil), lead-based driers, mastic resin, and often copal resin too, at this date. The black dress is thickly painted over the background, creating the thickest paint layer on the panel. ¹² Originally the black must have set off the unusual combination of colours – gold and khaki on the sofa, reddish brown and grey on the floor – dramatically.

Conservation History

The wood panel is a single piece of timber with an auxiliary backing and framing device, both made from mahogany-type hardwood, with adhered thin 5-6 mm battens having mitred corners. ¹³ Stuck on the verso of this support panel is a label giving the title and address of Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). This suggests that this form of auxiliary backing was done after Whistler's death, possibly for exhibition.

The paint layer is very unstable and friable, with some paint loss, minor cracking and craquelure. The thick paint of the black dress, painted over the background, may account for the formation (in this colour alone) of numerous protrusions, some ‘topped’ to reveal the white priming. There is also some similar blistering in the ruff and hair of the model. The protrusions are likely to be lead soap aggregates (LSAs), formed naturally as paint rich in lead driers ages. This is extremely unusual in Whistler's work and might suggest he was using a different medium from usual. ¹⁴

Frame

49.5 x 41.8 x 5.6 cm.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to Whistler's ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1935: given by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

By the terms of Miss R. Birnie Philip's gift to the University of Glasgow, it is not lendable.

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. 225), plate 142, as 'The Gold Ruff'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Sutton, Denys, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolours, London, 1966, repr. pl. 100.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Loan Exhibition of Works by James McNeill Whistler to aid the Professional Classes War Relief Council, Messrs Colnaghi, London, 1915 (cat. no. 21) as 'The Gold Ruff'.
• James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1935 (cat. no. 2) as 'The Gold Ruff'.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41162.
• ArtUK website at https://www.artuk.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 180).

Other

• None.