The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel dates from 1885.

It was commissioned by Sophia (Eustratius) Ionides (Mrs M. B. Manuel) (1853-1905), the wife of Miltiades Basil Manuel (1841-1907), and completed in 1885.

According to the artist Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), Whistler 'was not quick enough for the child, who was wearied with the number of sittings'; and Sickert begged Whistler not to 'attempt to repaint the whole picture to the boy's present condition but merely touch details. The picture is finished.' ¹

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel, Freer Gallery of Art

According to the sitter, Stephen Manuel (1880-1954) the final version of the portrait was painted 'in about two sittings.' ²

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one basic title is known:

• 'Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel' (1885, Society of British Artists). ³
• 'Portrait little Manuel' (1892, Whistler). ⁴
• 'Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'' and, in deluxe edition, 'Arrangement in Grey, Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel' (1905, ISSPG). ⁵
• 'Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

'Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel' is the preferred title.

Description

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel, Freer Gallery of Art

A head and shoulders portrait of a young boy, in vertical format. He faces the viewer, wearing a grey suit with a broad white collar, and a big round hat with a pale grey feather. He has brown curly hair. The background is a warm greyish beige.

Sitter

Stephen Manuel (1880-1954), CBE, became Chief of Section of Raw Materials Department and Adviser on East Indian Tanned Hides and Skins. His mother, Sophia (Eustratius) Ionides (Mrs M. B. Manuel) (1853-1905), was the sister of Whistler's sister-in-law, Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917) (née Ionides). Stephen Manuel later married one of his cousins, Zoe Ionides (1877-1973).

W. R. Sickert, Portrait of Stephen Manuel, etching, Freer Gallery of Art, FSC-GR-703

One of Sickert's first etchings, Portrait of Stephen Manuel, was done at the time Whistler was painting Stephen's portrait: it is 6.3 x 6.2 cm, very much smaller than the painting. ⁷

Technique

Technique

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel, Freer Gallery of Art

According to the sitter, Stephen Manuel (1880-1954), 'Whistler produced a fresh canvas each time ... the essential picture was painted very quickly and in about two sittings'. ⁸ According to the artist Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942),Whistler 'was not quick enough for the child, who was wearied with the number of sittings'; and Sickert begged Whistler 'don't attempt to repaint the whole picture to the boy's present condition but merely touch details, the picture is finished.' ⁹

It is in a very restricted range of colours. There are signs of pentimenti around the hat and hair. The brush strokes are barely visible, except for the bolder broad white brushstrokes on the collar.

Conservation History

According to Freer Gallery records, it was cleaned in 1921, relined and resurfaced in 1925, cleaned, resurfaxed and waxed in 1949, revarnished in 1951, and cleaned, restretched, revarnished, inpainted and revarnished in 1965.

Frame

Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel, Freer Gallery of Art

It is in a Flat Whistler frame dating from 1885. ¹⁰

History

Provenance

• 1885: commissioned by Sophia (Eustratius) Ionides (Mrs M. B. Manuel) (1853-1905), the wife of Miltiades Basil Manuel (1841-1907);
• 1905: on her death, passed to Stephen Manuel (1880-1954);
• 1908: bought from him by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, in November 1908, for £800;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions

• 1885: Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 45) as 'Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 51) as 'Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'' and, in deluxe edition, 'Arrangement in Grey, Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'.

It was well received at the Society of British Artists, as Whistler told his sister-in-law, Helen ('Nellie') Euphrosyne Whistler (1849-1917):

'I should have supposed it might have occurred to Mrs Sophie or yourself to drive round one afternoon some day at dusk and say to me how pleased you all are at Steevies success! - He seems certainly to be the favourite in all papers - have n't you seen?' ¹¹

The Illustrated London News praised the 'simple innocency' of the child, Truth commended it as a 'clever arrangement in grey', and the Globe raved about it: 'We are inclined to think that he has produced nothing more masterly in style than this – more beautiful in its gradations of colour or more complete.' ¹²

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot now be lent to other venues.

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. 321), plate 206, as 'Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 45) as 'Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 51) as 'Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'' and, in deluxe edition, 'Arrangement in Grey, Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Three Picture Galleries', London Evening Standard, London, 30 November 1885, p. 3.
• Anon., 'The British Artists', Truth, London, 3 December 1885, p. 16.
• Anon., 'Society of British Artists', Globe, London, 5 December 1885, p. 2.
• Anon., 'Occasional Notes' Pall Mall Gazette, London, 8 December 1885, pp. 3-4.
• Anon., 'The Society of British Artists',Illustrated London News, London, 12 December 1885, p. 22.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, repr. p. 196.
• Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, fig. 54.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, repr. f.p. 48.

Books, General

• Bomberg, Ruth, Walter Sickert: Prints, A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 2000 (cat. no. 76, II).
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, pp. 284-85.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 145, 295, pl. 51.
• Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948, p. 13 (08. 178).

EXHIBITION:

• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, p. 19.

Journals 1906-Present

• John Burr, 'Sufferings of a Suffolk Streeter', The Art Journal, vol. 68, 1906, p. 195, repr.
• Sherrill, Sarah B., 'James Abbott McNeill Whistler', The Magazine Antiques, vol. 125, 1984, p. 956.
• Sickert, Walter Richard, ‘Where Paul and I differ’, Art News, no. 14, 10 February 1910, p. 113.
• Sickert, Walter Richard, ‘L’Affaire Greaves’, New Age, 15 June 1911, pp. 159-60. at p. 160.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1908.178a-b.
• 'Whistler’s Portraits: Ripper, Vampire, or Sickert?', Bento, Blog, 13 July 2016, https://www.freersackler.si.edu.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 305).

Other

• Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.