The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl probably dates from between 1882 and 1884. ¹

According to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), it was painted at some time after Whistler returned from Venice in 1880. ²

Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl, photograph

However, Edith Emma Marzetti (1865-1924) said that her sister, Maud Mary Waller (1862-1942), began posing in 1882:

'the sittings commenced in the early part of 1882. We went two or three times, and then Whistler painted the face out, as it was not to his liking, although most people thought it excellent. In those days Maud was very beautiful. The painting was started on a canvas that already had a figure on it, and it was turned upside down, and the Blue Girl's head painted in between the legs. The dress was made by Mme. Alias, the theatrical costumier, to Whistler's design, and I believe cost a good deal. In the end the picture was finished from another model (I do not know who).' ³

Sarah, the wife of Charles Alias (b. ca 1853-d. 1921), was the costumier mentioned in this letter.

On 2 May 1882 Alan Summerly Cole (1846-1934) noted in his diary that Whistler was 'painting his "Blue Girl". Eldon [sic] there - as a kind of claque, calling out "splendid" on each of Jimmy's strokes and touches on canvas.' ⁴ He meant Matthew Robinson Elden (1839-1885) who frequented Whistler's studio.

In an undated letter Whistler apologised to the sitter's mother, Emma Waller, 'that this week I ... have to devote myself to my other work and have to put off the delight of painting the pretty Maud - for it is a delight.' ⁵ He also wrote to Edith, the sitter's sister, blaming Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) for some mistake (which Sickert said was 'a libel'), and suggesting 2 pm for a sitting. ⁶ Sickert later stated he had 'painted a sketch of the Blue Girl, actually taking the mixtures off Whistler's palette.' ⁷ This oil has not been located but Sickert painted a small watercolour, Whistler's studio, of Maud in a blue dress standing on a dais before a blue curtain. This watercolour shows Maud posing at right, the full-length framed painting to left, and Whistler's table palette in the left foreground. The painting is tilted forward, and behind it there is a fireplace. ⁸

The sitter's uncle, Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930), remembered that 'when the portrait was halfway through it was put aside, but it was sent to the Grosvenor Gallery for the private view and taken away directly after.' ⁹ It was exhibited, very briefly, at the VI Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1882 (cat. no. 67). ¹⁰ Whistler may well have worked on it after the show. Then in 1884 it was shown at 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 31). According to Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938), at the press view 'Whistler was still attempting to repaint the mouth.' ¹¹

According to Pickford Waller,

'I think it was nearly two years after that Whistler wanted to resume work on it, but my niece had in the meantime grown so rapidly that she could not get into the costume ... The portrait was never finished and a new model and a fresh canvas was started for the blue girl now known. What became of the original I never knew.' ¹²

About 1886 Whistler twice listed a 'Blue Girl' among his pictures, but it is not absolutely sure that he meant this one. ¹³

Images

Subject

Titles

One main title has been suggested:

• 'Scherzo in Blue – "The Blue Girl" ' (1882, Grosvenor). ¹⁴
• 'Portrait of Miss Maud Waller. The Blue Girl (destroyed)' (1911, Pennell). ¹⁵
• 'Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl' (1980, YMSM). ¹⁶

'Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl' is the preferred title.

Description

Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl, Whereabouts unknown

A full length portrait of a girl in vertical format. She stands with legs apart and hands on hips. She wears a dark dress with knee-length skirt, with a long waistcoat or tunic over it. She has long dark hair. A hat with a feather sits on her head.

The pose and costume are also closely related to those in the portrait of Elinor Leyland (The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111). Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226 is the last of Whistler's 'Blue Girls' (see Annabel Lee y079).

The photograph of Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226 owned by Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938), and reproduced by the Pennells, is the principal visual record of the painting. ¹⁷ This photograph gives the proportions for Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226. These proportions correspond to a canvas of approximately 191 x 99 cm (75 x 39"). The sketch of Whistler's studio by Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), reproduced below, suggests that the portrait might have been marginally smaller.

W. R. Sickert, Whistler's studio, private collection

Sickert's sketch shows that the hat was dark blue with pale blue trimming and feather. Her shoulder-length hair is blonde. A pale blue dress, coming to just below the knee, is tied with a light-coloured belt. An over dress appears to have panels of alternate blueish white and pale blue, with dark blue trimming at the front, on the shoulder caps, and on the scalloped hem. She has dark blue high-heeled shoes and pale blue tights.

Sitter

Maud Mary Waller (1862-1942) (later Mrs Monk). According to Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930), 'The original "Blue Girl" was painted from my brother's (Major Waller's) second daughter, Maud. She was a beautiful child and quite a pet of Whistlers'. ¹⁸

Technique

Composition

Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl, Whereabouts unknown

The Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art

The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist, The Hunterian

The dress and pose are similar to those in a pastel, r.: The Blue Girl; v.: Curtain m0521, which dates from the mid-1870s. Variations on the dress and pose are seen in The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist y207, dating from the late 1870s. T. R. Way was incorrect in stating that Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl was painted 'in a similar pose and arrangement' to the second portrait of Connie Gilchrist. ¹⁹

Technique

Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl , whereabouts unknown

Mrs Marzetti described Whistler's method of painting her sister:

'he stood yards away from the picture with his brush, and would move it as though he were painting; he would then take a hop skip and jump across the room, and put a dab of paint on the canvas; he also used to wet his finger, and gently rub portions of his picture. I have often seen him take a sponge with soap and water, and wash the Blue Girl's face (on the canvas, I mean).' ²⁰

W. R. Sickert, Whistler's studio, private collection

Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) painted a sketch of Maud Waller posing in the studio. ²¹ It shows Whistler's table palette at left, and the canvas, framed, tilted forward as if in on the walls of an exhibition. It is likely that this sketch was painted in 1884, when Whistler was still trying to complete the portrait for exhibition. According to another of Whistler's followers, Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938), at the press view 'Whistler was still attempting to repaint the mouth.' ²²

In 1884 The Graphic commented: ' "The Blue Girl," is not a favourable example of Mr. Whistler's skill in portraiture. His fine sense of colour is shown in the treatment of delicately modulated local tints, but the girl's head is ill-drawn, one eye being considerably higher than the other.' ²³

Conservation History

Unknown. Probably destroyed.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• Unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1882: VI Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1882 (cat. no. 67) as 'Scherzo in Blue – "The Blue Girl" '.
• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 31).

1882: Grosvenor Gallery. The sitter's uncle, Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930), remembered that 'when the portrait was halfway through it was put aside, but it was sent to the Grosvenor Gallery for the private view and taken away directly after.' ²⁴ Edith Emma Marzetti (1865-1924) also thought that it was taken away 'the same night or next morning' of the private view. ²⁵ This may have been an exaggeration.

However, press reactions were not very flattering. The Era on 5 May 1882 enquired if Whistler painted 'with a sponge and a scrubbing brush' and the St James's Gazette objected to the title: 'why does not Mr. Whistler paint a gavotte or a barcarolle for a change?' ²⁶ And the Pall Mall Gazette on 6 June described it as 'a sketch of a scarecrow in a blue dress, which is absolutely without form and void.'

Whistler complained to Edmund Hodgson Yates (1831-1894) of The World that when 'Arry – the art critic Henry Quilter (1851-1907) – had visited the Grosvenor Gallery:

'he stood under one of my own "harmonies" - already with difficulty gasping its gentle breath - himself an amazing "arrangement" in strong mustard-and-cress, with birds-eye belcher of Reckitt's blue; and then and there destroyed absolutely, unintentionally, and once for all, my year's work!' ²⁷

In the Illustrated London News, 22 July 1882, a wood engraving by R. Hallward, wrongly entitled 'The Blue Girl', actually shows Harmony in Black and Red y236, the other Whistler painting in the show: 'here we have the blind led by the Color blind' commented Whistler. ²⁸

1884: Dowdeswell's. Reviews of the Dowdeswell exhibition varied very considerably. Several were ambivalent: the Builder on 24 May wrote: ' "The Blue Girl" is admirable in its way, both in colour and drawing, except (in regard of colour) the shaded side of the face, which looks as if not clean.' The Globe also criticized Whistler's handling of the face:

'The large portrait called, with unnecessary tautology, "Scherzo in Blue - The Blue Girl," would be more satisfactory if the girl's right eye were more nearly on a level with her left, and if her feet appeared to touch the ground on which she is supposed to stand; but the modulations of colour in the dress are managed with subtle skill, and the general tone of the picture is agreeable.' ²⁹

The Sunday Times critic had mixed feelings, being enthusiastic about the colour mixed with dislike of Whistler's depiction of the figure itself:

'There is poetry really in some of them, as in the "Note in Red," or the "Scherzo in Blue," both of which are striking in colour, although they are marred with great ugliness of form. Mr. Whistler does but little justice to his sitters, or he must be singularly unfortunate in his models. Surely such long-legged children, such elephantine-footed females were never seen before. Their costumes seem to have been purchased, too, at that Rag shop in Chelsea, a picture of which, taken seemingly in the middle of the night, Mr. Whistler obligingly christens a "Nocturne in black and gold.” ' ³⁰

A journalist writing under the name 'Cigarette' disliked most of Whistler's works, including this:

'The one big picture, "The Blue Girl," is to me impossible. "Scherzo, indeed!" said one Philistine critic, glancing at his catalogue, "she never wore anything of the sort!" and other people, associating her with a "girl" of another colour that hung in the Grosvenor some years ago, made even still ruder remarks.' ³¹

The Kensington News described it as 'only fairly satisfactory.' ³² The Whitehall Review on 29 June 1884 was more enthusiastic: 'a child in a marvellous arrangement of blues will take its place among the most brilliant of Mr. Whistler's colour triumphs.' ³³ Whistler's friend, the architect Edward William Godwin (1833-1886), wrote that the show consisted of 'sixty-six small paintings, drawings, pastels – stars of different magnitudes, grouped around a blue moon – a life size, full length portrait called by the artist 'Scherzo in Blue – The Blue Girl.' ³⁴ An equally enthusiastic review appeared in the Liverpool Mercury:

'The piece de résistance of the Whistler exhibition is a full length portrait of a young girl dressed in blue, and is called a scherzo in that colour. This is a dignified canvas, fine in execution, and marked by a more thoughtful insight into the problem of portraiture than has characterised come of his pictures of this class. It might make a pendant for Gainsborough’s "Blue Boy".' ³⁵

But the silliest comment was that of 'Aunt Towzer', writing in a mocking approximation of cockney:

'There was one that I did think was inipropriate – a schertzo in blue – a girl in a blue gownd though why he couldn’t call it a skirt in blue, come o’ them derangements wasn’t good; but lor, when you have to back and back till you can’t nearly not see ‘em, why, it’s orkard, and the number o’ times as I apologised to puffeck strangers – well, my brain was in that distemper, I never felt madder.' ³⁶

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. 226), plate 143, as 'Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl'.

Authored by Whistler

• The World, 17 May 1882 , republished in Whistler, James McNeill, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies, London, 1890, pp. 72-73.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• VI Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1882 (cat. no. 67) as 'Scherzo in Blue – "The Blue Girl" '.
• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 31).

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', Bradford Observer, Bradford, 1 May 1882, pp. 3-4, at p. 4.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', The Era, London, 5 May 1882, p. 7.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', St James's Gazette, London, 6 May 1882, p. 6.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery', The Era, London, 13 May 1882, p. 3.
• Anon., ‘Notes – Harmonies – Nocturnes’, Sunday Times, London, 24 May 1884.
• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Exhibition', Globe, London, 20 May 1884, p. 6.
• Anon. ['Cigarette'], 'Whistles', The Topical Times, London, 24 May 1884.
• 'M.C.S.' [Malcolm Charles Salaman], Kensington News, London, 29 May 1884.
• Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery.-II', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 6 June 1882, p. 4.
• Anon., 'Art Notes', Liverpool Mercury, Liverpool, 3 July 1884, p. 6.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Exhibition', The Builder, London, 24 May 1884.
• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Exhibition', The Graphic, London, 24 May 1884, p. 3.
• Godwin, E. W., 'To Art Students: Letter No. 9', British Architect, vol. 22, 11 July 1884, p. 13.
• Anon., Whitehall Review, London, 29 June 1884.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 44.
• Menpes, Mortimer, Whistler as I Knew Him, London, 1904, pp. 116-17.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 303-05.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, repr. f.p. 300 as 'Portrait of Miss Maud Waller. The Blue Girl (destroyed).'
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 76).
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 30.

Books, General

• Baron, Wendy, Sickert, London, 1973, watercolour by Sickert, pp. 13, 298.
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, pp. 195, 284.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, PP. 14-16 (not in exhibition), repr. fig. 11.

SALE:

• Christie's, South Kensington, 14 July 2016 (lot 47, W. R. Sickert, 'Whistler's Studio').

Journals 1906-Present

• Sickert, ‘Where Paul and I differ’, Art News, No. 14, 10 February 1910, p. 113.
• Sickert, Walter, 'L'Affaire Greaves', New Age, 15 June 1911, pp. 159-60, at p. 160.

Websites

• W. R. Sickert watercolour: Christie's, South Kensington, 14 July 2016 (lot 47), website at https://www.christies.com.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 140).

Other

• None.