The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait Sketch of Walter Sickert possibly dates from between 1885 and 1887, but it is difficult to judge in its unfinished state, and is not entirely consistent with Whistler's work at that time. ¹

Portrait Sketch of Walter Sickert, whereabouts unknown

The date of the portrait is not clear from the correspondence between artist and sitter. Sickert wrote to Whistler, possibly in December 1885 or 1886, that he had paid for his portrait, but, later, possibly in October 1887, he mentioned that £52.10.0 was outstanding 'to complete the 200 guineas.' ² Unfortunately, it is not known if one or other or both of these payments were for a full-length, Portrait of Walter Sickert y349, or for the two head-and-shoulder portraits of Sickert painted about the same time (this portrait and Sketch Portrait of Walter Sickert y350).

Images

Subject

Titles

The title suggested is as follows:

• 'Portrait Sketch of Walter Sickert' (1980, YMSM).

Description

Portrait Sketch of Walter Sickert, photograph, 1969?

A head and shoulders study of a dark-haired young man in three-quarter view to right. The clothes and background are only roughly indicated.

Sitter

Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) met Whistler about 1882, and left the Slade School of Art to become Whistler's pupil and assistant.

Portrait Sketch of Walter Sickert, photograph, 1969?

Sketch Portrait of Walter Sickert, Dublin City Gallery, The Hugh Lane, photograph, 1980

He commissioned Whistler to paint portraits of both his wife (see Arrangement in Violet and Pink: Mrs Walter Sickert y337 and Green and Violet: Portrait of Mrs Walter Sickert y338) and himself (see Portrait of Walter Sickert y349 and Sketch Portrait of Walter Sickert y350).

Technique

Technique

Portrait Sketch of Walter Sickert, whereabouts unknown

It is painted thinly, with the clothes barely indicated, and areas of canvas left bare. It has a very scrubbed and worn look, and is in a very preliminary stage, or indeed, has been scraped down as a preparation for reworking. It is difficult to assess in its current state, but is not entirely like Whistler's other work of the period.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: acquired by the artist Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942);
• 1942: probably bequeathed to his adopted son and heir Georges A. Mevil-Blanche (1902-1975), Offranville and Paris.
• 1969: sold by the Leicester Galleries, London, to the New York art dealer, John Archie Torson (d. 2015);
• 1972: sold by him to Herbert E. Ward (1915-2003), proprietor of the Black Bass Hotel, Lumberville, PA.
• 2018: present whereabouts unknown.

The portrait may have been commissioned by the sitter, Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), who wrote to Whistler, possibly in December 1885 or 1886, that he had paid for his portrait, but, later, possibly in October 1887, he mentioned that £52.10.0 was outstanding ('This leaves me indebted to you for £52.10 for my portrait, to complete the 200 guineas.'). ³ It is not known if these payments were for the full-length portrait, Portrait of Walter Sickert y349, or for the two smaller portraits of Sickert painted about the same time (see Sketch Portrait of Walter Sickert y350).

It is not known what happened to the painting on (or before) H. E. Ward's death in 2003: the Black Bass Hotel, with many items from Ward's collection, was bought at auction in March 2008 by Jack Thompson, of the Thompson Organization of car dealerships.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

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. 351), plate 232, as 'Portrait Sketch of Walter Sickert'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 54), not exhibited.
• 'MacDonald, Margaret, 'Whistler como artista, maestro y amigo', pp. 19-32, in Dempsey, Andrew (ed.), James McNeill Whistler. Walter Richard Sickert, La Caixa, Madrid, 1998, pp. 27, 115, 219, repr. fig. 14.

Journals 1906-Present

• Dempsey, Andrew, 'Whistler and Sickert: A Friendship and its End', Apollo, vol. 83, January 1966, pp. 30-37, at p. 30.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.