The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch dates from the early 1880s, probably between 1882 and 1885. ¹

Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

Harmony in Fawn Colour and Purple: Portrait of Miss Milly Finch, The Hunterian

Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

It is dated from the costume as well as the connection to other portraits of the same sitter, Harmony in Fawn Colour and Purple: Portrait of Miss Milly Finch y238 and Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch y239.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's original title is not known. The known title varies only in punctuation, as follows:

• Possibly 'Milly. Finch - Red' or 'Blue Girl' (1886/1887, Whistler). ²
• 'Harmony in Coral and Blue (Miss Finch)' (1936, Glasgow). ³
• 'Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch' (1980, YMSM). ⁴

In 1886 Whistler listed among the full-length portraits in his studio: 'Milly. Finch - Red - ... / Millie Finch - Violet - / Blue. Girl - / Millie Finch Black.' ⁵ Although the 'Blue Girl' is not here identified as Milly Finch, it is possible, given the sequence of titles in Whistler's list, that she posed for it. The design and colour of the dress bear some similarities to other 'Blue Girls' such as The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111.

Alternatively, this painting, although now known as Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, may have been the 'Milly. Finch - Red' listed in 1886. However, there are two known portraits of Millie Finch that show her wearing a coral/red scarf, this and Harmony in Fawn Colour and Purple: Portrait of Miss Milly Finch y238.

The title given in 1936 was probably provided by Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958); it may have been based on information from Whistler. The punctuation was changed in 1980 to conform with other titles. Thus 'Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch' is the title now generally accepted.

Description

Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

A full length portrait of a young woman, in vertical format. She stands facing the viewer, her gaze directed slightly downwards. A pinkish red scarf is draped around her shoulders and head, over dark hair cut in an uneven fringe. Her dress is bluish white, the folds outlined lightly in pale blue and grey, with capped or puff sleeves at the shoulders. The narrow sleeves are blue with a white frill at the wrist. The dress, with a narrow black belt at the waist, is close fitting down to mid-thigh, and then is over-painted with broad brush-strokes in blue, suggesting a pleated or gathered skirt. Her arms hang by her sides. A palm fan is roughly outlined in her right hand. Her weight rests on her right leg, and her body has a slight contrapposto pose. Her left foot, in a plum coloured shoe, is pointed forward, and the other is not seen. The background is a light yellow ochre, with shadows falling to right.

Sitter

Millie Finch (fl. 1875-1885) has not been identified. Milly seems to have modelled for Whistler when Maud Franklin (1857-1939) was ill.

'Milly' could be short for Amelia or Millicent. She may possibly have been 'Millicent J. Finch', who would have been fifteen in 1884.

Whistler called her 'the Red Girl'. ⁶ He painted three oil portraits of Milly in the mid-1880s, Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, Harmony in Fawn Colour and Purple: Portrait of Miss Milly Finch y238, and Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch y239, and several watercolours.

Comments

It is possible that two portraits of Millie Finch (this and Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch y239) were part of a series of 'blue girls' painted by Whistler between 1870 and 1900.

The first 'blue girl is said to have been Annabel Lee y079. This was followed by The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111 and The Blue Girl: Maud Franklin y112.

Later related works include Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226 and possibly Harmony in Blue and Violet: Miss Finch y239. The last 'blue girl' was probably Blue and Coral: The Little Blue Bonnet y500.

Technique

Composition

Portrait of Maud Franklin, changed later to one of Florence Leyland, photograph

The model's dress and pose in Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch is similar to that in a portrait of Maud Franklin (1857-1939), which was altered to become Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland y107. Perhaps the portrait of Millie formed part of the development of this composition.

To some extent the composition and colour scheme – the pale turquoise dress, with dark cobalt blue on the sleeves and streaked down the bottom of the skirt – resemble descriptions of Whistler's series of 'Blue Girls' (Annabel Lee y079, The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111. The Blue Girl: Maud Franklin y112, Arrangement in Blue and Green y193, The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist y207, and Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl y226).

Technique

Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch, The Hunterian

The coarse plain-weave canvas was prepared with an off-white and possibly a mid-grey ground.

Whistler sketched the overall composition roughly in brown, giving the painting a warm tonality, which unifies the final colour composition. The 'coral' of the title is seen in her head-scarf and shoes. There are pentimenti: her shoulders were originally higher, and her hands have been rubbed out. Whistler applied the paint with thin strokes and washes of blue, red and pink tints, leaving some parts less finished than others.

Conservation History

The coarse plain-weave canvas is glue-lined onto a finer plain tabby weave canvas. The application of an extra canvas support at the back of the original using adhesive, and often heat and pressure, was normally performed to strengthen a damaged or fragile canvas, but here it may have been chosen by the artist to emphasise the canvas weave.

The paint layer has sustained some damage, with flaking and paint-loss. It is possible some abrasion dates back to Whistler's time. There are signs that the canvas has been torn and folded, resulting in areas of fractured paint and craquelure. It has been repaired at some time and there has been extensive retouching. The paint layer is fragile, although a thick layer of glossy varnish has partially preserved it. ⁷

Frame

Portrait Whistler frame, 203.3 x 101.7 x 6.6 cm. ⁸

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death in 1903 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 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. 237), plate 158, as 'Harmony in Coral and Blue: Miss Finch'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Glazer, Lee, Emily Jacobsen, Blyth McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor. Lovely Little Games, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2019, p. 195, repr.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 147, 149, repr. fig. 142.
• Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, repr. pl. 69.
• Spencer, Robin, Whistler, New York, 1990, 2nd edition, Master Painters Studio Editions, 1993, p. 120.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Hopkinson, Martin J., in Lawrence Keppie (ed.), Souvenir Guide, Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1990, repr. fig. 2.

EXHIBITION:

• James McNeill Whistler, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1936 (cat. no. 22) as 'Harmony in Coral and Blue (Miss Finch)'.
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 203, repr. fig. 134.5 (not exhibited).

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41061.
• Art UK website at https://artuk.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 201).

Other

• None.