The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Master Menpes, Whereabouts unknown, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

Master Menpes may date from the late 1880s. The sketchy style, and the fact that it has not survived so that any analysis is based on a black and white photograph, makes a definite date impossible to establish. It must date from the years when Whistler was associated with the sitter's father, artist Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938), and the photograph may have been owned by him.

Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes, whereabouts unknown

Master Menpes, whereabouts unknown

It has been assumed that the portrait of Menpes' son was of a similar date to a portrait of his sister, Note in Flesh Colour and Grey: Portrait of Miss Dorothy Menpes y260, and to a watercolour, Master Menpes m1017, both dated 1884/1885. ¹ Of the several Menpes children, Mortimer James was born in 1879 and Dorothy Whistler in 1883. Dorothy was just a toddler, and Mortimer would have been about five, if these dates are correct.

However, Master Menpes y261 appears to show an older child. It could still be Mortimer – though the identification is by no means certain – and the picture could date from later in the 1880s, perhaps between 1886 and 1887, when he would have been seven or eight.

Master Menpes, whereabouts unknown, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

Henry E. Dixey in Adonis, photograph

In 1886 Henry E. Dixey (1859-1943) posed in a play called Adonis in what may have been a similar costume, representing the extreme fashion of the 'Incroyables' in Paris during the French Directoire (1795–1799). It is possible that Portrait of Henry E. Dixey y356 and Master Menpes y261 are related.

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Master Menpes' (n.d., anon.). ²
• 'Master Menpes' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

Master Menpes, whereabouts unknown, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

The portrait of a boy in vertical format. He is dressed up as a dandy of the Napoleonic or Directoire period. He has a high crowned black hat over his shoulder length blonde curly hair. He wears a close-fitting suit with a ruff at the neck, frills at the wrist, and bunches of ribbons at the top of long boots or knee length stockings. He faces the viewer, with his left hand extended as if holding a cane, his right hand on hip, and his legs apart, his left leg pointing outwards.

It is known to the compilers only from a photograph, but appears to have been authentic; the original may have been destroyed. The size of the photograph, 22.4 x 13.4 cm (8 7/8 x 5 ¼") gives the proportions of the painting (though not the size), and although not absolutely clear, the support appears to have been canvas.

Sitter

This portrait probably shows Mortimer James Menpes ( 1879-1900), the son of Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) and Rosa Mary Menpes (1855-1936). They had seven daughters and three sons, including Maud Rose Goodwin (1878-1958), Mortimer James (1879-1900), Dorothy Whistler (1883-1973), Walter (1886-1945), and Claude (1892-1963).

Master Menpes, whereabouts unknown

Whistler also painted a watercolour, Master Menpes m1017 where he appears as a golden haired toddler in a wide skirt and red hat.

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, born on 21 September 1886, but not their older son, Mortimer James Menpes.

Dorothy married Ivan Charles Flower and had two children, Pamela (d.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 the collection of Menpes' works, which went to a gallery in Reading, UK.

Technique

Technique

Master Menpes, whereabouts unknown, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

It is known only from a photograph. It appears to be very freely painted and unfinished.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

A photograph in the Pennell Collection, Library of Congress, is inscribed in an unknown hand 'From Menpes', and 'Master Menpes', but nothing is known of the picture's history.

Exhibitions

Unknown.

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. 261), plate 178, as 'Master Menpes'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Menpes, Mortimer, Whistler as I Knew Him, London, 1904, watercolour repr. f p. 88.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

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. 278a).

Other

• None.