The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of Sir Henry Cole dates from 1881-1882. ¹

Sir Henry Cole, and a list of pictures, The Hunterian

1881: According to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), in 1881 Whistler saw 'Sir Henry Cole in a cab in evening dress, and was most keen to paint him', and just afterwards made a drawing, Sir Henry Cole, and a list of pictures m0839, which is reproduced above (the head and shoulders of Sir Henry are at lower right). ²

The painting may have been started in December 1881 when Whistler wrote to his sister-in-law, '... it is most impossible for me to get up today or tomorrow - for I have the old boy and Mrs Forster without intermission upon my hands.' ³

One day in the winter of 1881-1882, Whistler wrote to Sir Henry's son, Alan Summerly Cole (1846-1934), 'Now come round on Sunday next at about half past two - or three - in short before the light goes - and give the most affectionate message to your father and say he must come too'; A. S. Cole added, 'impossible', and Whistler went on, 'Say also that I am most determined to paint him - and beg that he will set aside next Tuesday for that purpose', and again Cole annotated it, 'impossible.' ⁴

1882: in his diary A. S. Cole recorded a visit to Whistler's studio on 26 February 1882: 'Found his commencement of my father, good but slight, full length, evening clothes.' ⁵ When Sir Henry postponed a sitting, Whistler wrote to him, 'I am in great spirits about the picture.' ⁶ By late March 1882 it was progressing well, On 29 March Whistler wrote to Sir Henry Cole, 'I shall be very much pleased and flattered to see a reproduction of the portrait I am now painting of you, in the work you are about to bring out'; he asked 30 guineas for the copyright, and hoped Cole felt well enough for another sitting. ⁷

The artist Matthew Robinson Elden (1839-1885) told A. S. Cole 'that he was in the studio when Jimmy was at work on my father's portrait on the 17th [April] and that the last words my father had said to him were "Death waits for no man." ' ⁸ On 17 April 1882 A. S. Cole recorded the last sitting:

'In spite of his illness, my father to Whistler's, who fretted him by not painting – my father thought that Jimmy had merely touched the light on his shoes – and nothing else – altho' he stood and sat for over an hour and a half (my father died the next day).' ⁹

According to the artist Sidney Starr (1857-1925),

'The first words Whistler said to me on my first visit to his studio were, "It doesn't smell of paint, does it?" He was painting a portrait of Sir Henry Cole ... a tall dark portrait of a man in a long cloak of dark blue, turned back over the right shoulder, a man with a ruddy face and a white stubby beard. Before he spoke he put a slow decisive stroke on the right cheek-bone and then stood back. The sitting was over, and that was the last stroke he put on that canvas.' ¹⁰

Sir Henry Cole died on 18 April 1882. On 2 May 1882 Whistler showed Alan S. Cole the portrait, 'which J. [Whistler] can make into a very good thing.' ¹¹ However, according to the Pennells, Alan S. Cole was later informed that Whistler had destroyed the portrait. ¹²

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Portrait of Sir Henry Cole' (1980, YMSM). ¹³

Description

Portrait of Sir Henry Cole, photograph, Pennell 1911

A full-length portrait of an elderly man in a dark suit and cloak. He has white hair and a beard. He stands in three-quarter view to right.

The sitter's son, A. S. Cole, described it in his diary on 26 February 1882, but transcriptions vary; one reads, 'full length, evening clothes, long dark overcloak thrown back, red ribbon of Bath', while another describes the cloak as a 'long dark brown cloak', and yet another as a 'long dark overcoat thrown back.' ¹⁴

Sidney Starr (1857-1925) described the cloak as blue rather than brown: 'a portrait of Sir Henry Cole ... a tall dark portrait of a man in a long cloak of dark blue, turned back over the right shoulder, a man with a ruddy face and a white stubby beard.' ¹⁵

The photograph of this portrait reproduced by the Pennells in 1911 is the sole visual record of the portrait. ¹⁶ The photograph gives the proportions for the canvas, which is in vertical format. Assuming it to have been life-size, these proportions would correspond to a canvas of approximately 75 x 40 (191 x 102mm).

Sitter

Henry Cole (1808-1882).

Sir Henry Cole, C.B., photograph, Victoria and Albert Museum E.207-2005

This was Whistler's second portrait of Sir Henry Cole (see Portrait of Sir Henry Cole y180). A letter from Whistler to Cole on 29 March 1882 suggests that Cole wished to reproduce the second portrait in his autobiography, but when the book was published, after Cole's death, the portrait was not reproduced. ¹⁷ .

Technique

Composition

Sir Henry Cole, and a list of pictures, The Hunterian

A small preliminary sketch, Sir Henry Cole, and a list of pictures m0839, shows Sir Henry's head and shoulders, with a top hat over his thick white hair. In the painting he is not wearing the hat.

Technique

Portrait of Sir Henry Cole, photograph, Pennell 1911

Except that sittings were long on time and short on action, little is known about Whistler's technique. On 17 April 1882 A. S. Cole recorded the last sitting: 'my father thought that Jimmy had merely touched the light on his shoes – and nothing else – altho' he stood and sat for over an hour and a half.' ¹⁸

Sidney Starr also recorded what he described as the last sitting: '[Whistler] put a slow decisive stroke on the right cheek-bone and then stood back. The sitting was over, and that was the last stroke he put on that canvas.' ¹⁹

Conservation History

Unknown. It was probably destroyed by Whistler. ²⁰

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

Unknown. According to the Pennells, Alan S. Cole was informed that Whistler had destroyed the portrait. ²¹

Exhibitions

Whistler had hoped to have the portrait ready for exhibition in the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882. ²² Cole's death of course prevented that.

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. 233) as 'Portrait of Sir Henry Cole', plates 146, 399.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 839).

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'In the Studios', London Daily News, London, 29 March 1882, pp. 5-6.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 302-03, 307.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, p. 211, repr. f.p. 204.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, pp. 83-84, drawing repr. f.p. 82.

Books, General

• Cole, A. S. and H. L. (eds), Fifty Years of Public Work of Sir Henry Cole, 2 vols., London, 1884, photograph of sitter repr. frontisp.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• Starr, Sidney, 'Personal Recollections of Whistler', Atlantic Monthly, vol. 101, April 1908, pp. 528-37, at p. 532.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.