The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Lady with a Fan dates from 1886. ¹

On 1 July 1886 the art critic Malcolm Charles Salaman (1855-1940) described seeing a painting in Whistler's studio, '[A] lady seated … with one hand leaning over the back of a chair, while the other holds a fan. She wears a white evening dress and is seen against a light background.' ²

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Lady with a Fan' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

Malcolm Charles Salaman (1855-1940) described it as a portrait 'painted in artificial light', showing '[A] lady seated in a graceful attitude, with one hand leaning over the back of a chair, while the other holds a fan. She wears a white evening dress and is seen against a light background.' ⁴ This description gives no indication of the size of the portrait.

Whistler painted a full-length portrait of his wife, Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896) by gaslight, Harmony in Red: Lamplight y253.

Sitter

Unknown.

Technique

Technique

Unknown.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

Unknown.

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. 352) as 'Lady with a Fan'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• Salaman, Malcolm Charles, 'In Whistler's Studio', The Court and Society Review, vol. 3, 1 July 1886, pp. 588-90.

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, p. 26.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.