The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 260
Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes
Date
Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes dates from 1884 or 1885.
Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes, Private Collection
She was born on 14 September 1883, and the portrait shows her as a toddler, indicating an age of between one and two years old.
The portrait was exhibited in the Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 231). 1
Images
Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes, Whereabouts unknown
Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes, photograph, 1955
Subject
Titles
One title has been suggested:
- 'Note in Fleshcolour and grey; Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes' (1885, Society of British Artists). 2
- 'Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes' (1980, YMSM). 3
Description
Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes, Whereabouts unknown
A portrait in vertical format. A toddler stands looking at the viewer, wearing a black shoe on her left foot, her right foot bare. She has short blonde hair, big dark eyes (a rather startled expression). She wears a crumpled white pinafore with a white ruffle over an off-white dress with a wide skirt, decorated round the hem with a pattern of blue flowers and green leaves. Her right arm stretches out to the side, the other, in front of her. Her right hand (at left) is barely visible. She may be being held up or supported. Her left hand is also holding something, maybe holding up an apron. The floor is a reddish brown and the background a darker brown.
Sitter
Dorothy Whistler Menpes (1884-1973) (Mrs Flower). She was the second daughter of Rosa Mary Menpes (1855-1936) and Whistler's pupil and follower Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938).
There were seven daughters and three sons. The family included Maud Rose Goodwin (1878-1958), Mortimer James (1879-1900), Dorothy Whistler (1883-1973), Walter Mortimer (1886-1945), and Claude (1892-1963).
Several children appear in an 1887 etching by Whistler, The Menpes Children [300], which probably includes Maud and Dorothy, and just possibly the Menpes' fourth child, Walter. For Whistler's portrait of her brother, see Master Menpes y261. Another member of this circle of young artists, Théodore Roussel (1847-1926), exhibited a portrait of Miss Menpes at the New English Art Club in 1887.
Dorothy married Ivan Charles Flower (1884-1966) and had two children, Pamela (1916-1969) and Richard Herbert Gordon Menpes Flower (1910-1979). Walter married Joan, and they had one son, Michael Mortimer Menpes; both parents died in 1945, and Michael, ca 1994. Claude married Winifred Kate (d. 1972) who inherited a collection of Menpes' works, which went to a gallery in Reading, UK.
Technique
Technique
Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes,Whereabouts unknown
It is painted on a thin panel, possibly mahogany,
Whistler must have been painting fast, catching the child in movement. He painted with quick, flickering strokes of a small brush, with considerable attention to detail, in, for instance, her features, and the dress. Some of the paint was as liquid as watercolour. The colours are subtle, with, for instance, lilac shades in the blonde hair.
There are odd strokes of colour on the carpet, which are fairly cursory but appropriate because it was a quick, vivid sketch. There are fine, flicking brush strokes to left of the hem of the dress that might have been done a little later, possibly by the artist to tidy up the quick sketch. Alternatively, it could easily have been touched up by the sitter's father, Mortimer Menpes, at the time.
Conservation History
The wooden panel is very slightly bowed, with minor abrasions from the frame at the edges. Some hairline craquelure is found on the figure and dark area at right. There has been some inpainting at the edges. There is one scratch to right of where her wrist crosses the skirt at right but it does not go through the paint.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
- 1885/1886: given by Whistler to Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938);
- 1938: passed by family descent to the sitter, Dorothy Whistler Menpes (1884-1973) and family;
- ca 1955: sold through the Leicester Galleries to Michael Tree (dates unknown), Kent.
- 1981: sold at auction, Christie's, London, 24 April 1981 (lot 151).
- By 2018: Gulf State Foundation Collection;
- 2019: art market, New York.
It was given by Whistler to Menpes either before or after the Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 231).
The painting's recent history is unclear. It was thought to be in the Tuscaloosa Museum of Art (formerly the Westervelt-Warner Museum of Art), which closed in 2018. By the spring of 2019 it was on deposit temporarily at Christie's, New York.
Exhibitions
- 1885: Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 231) as 'Note in Fleshcolour and grey; Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes'.
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. 260), plate 177, as 'Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes'.
- Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, website at http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk (G.300).
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
EXHIBITION:
- Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 231) as 'Note in Fleshcolour and grey; Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes'.
Journals 1855-1905
- None.
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. 513).
- Menpes, Mortimer, Whistler as I Knew Him, London, 1904, repr. f.p. 44.
- Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, p. 104.
Books, General
- None.
Catalogues 1906-Present
EXHIBITION:
- Exhibition, Leicester Galleries, I.ondon, 1955 (cat. no. 57).
- Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 50).
SALE:
- Christie's, London, 24 April 1981 (lot 151).
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
- None.
Unpublished
- Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 278).
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 260).
2: Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 231). In this catalogue raisonné Whistler's title or the first published title is retained, wherever possible. Whistler’s use of “flesh colour” to describe colour, as here, could imply a racist presumption that skin tone is defined as 'white' or Caucasian. In this case it presumably means the pale cream or pink of the child's skin.
3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 260).