The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Arrangement in Grey and Green: Portrait of J. J. Cowan was started in 1893, and sittings continued throughout the 1890s. ¹

1892: Whistler wrote to the painter John Lavery (1856-1941) that he could paint John James Cowan (1846-1936):

'I think I could make a good picture out of the man whose head you send me, and would therefore be very well pleased to paint Mr Cowan, only I dont see how it can be managed unless he runs over to Paris ...

I cannot quite see my way to a journey to Scotland in the depths of the winter, although I certainly hope to have the pleasure later on of visiting the city that has done me so much honour.

As to the price Mr Cowan wishes to know, a full length portrait for a thousand guineas, if he comes over here for it. Of course for a head or half length there would be another price.' ²

1893: On 18 January Cowan agreed to come to Paris and pose for 'a head only, or half length at most.' ³ On 15 February 1893 Whistler suggested sittings should start mid-May in Paris for a half- or small full-length at 600 guineas, or a head at 400 guineas. ⁴ According to Cowan, for a period of four weeks in May and June he had eighteen sittings of three hours or more in Paris; during the sittings Mrs Cowan read R. L. Stevenson's Treasure Island to them, and Whistler 'later on ... was inclined to blame the reading as a cause of his failure to complete the picture'; Cowan recorded that 'on the last day ... in his studio in 1893, he signed the picture and promised to send it after us but it never came. When I saw it again the signature had gone.' ⁵ On 24 June 1893 Whistler acknowledged receipt of a cheque for 600 guineas for 'Arrangement in Grey & Green'. ⁶ However, on 28 June he wrote to Cowan:

'No work is really produced without trouble - and in this case you have had quite as much as I have ...

Now when you find that you have time - and there is no hurry - hurry is an abominable thing - you will come over again and we will quite complete in all details, the "Arrangement in Grey & Green" - which meanwhile I continue to be on very good terms with.' ⁷

On 10 September 1893 Whistler told the Glasgow art dealer Alexander Reid (1854-1928) that Cowan had come to Paris specially to pose and had a sitting at 2 p.m. ⁸ Whistler suggested they had 'our first couple of sittings in solemn solitude! before we ask Mrs Cowan to come and look at what we have done in her absence.' ⁹

1894: Whistler proposed to complete certain details from the shoes and cap left by Cowan, and send the portrait to Mrs Cowan until Cowan returned from a trip to Australia, 'and when you return you might perhaps run back some day with it that I may put a few further touches upon the head.' ¹⁰ However, according to Cowan he did not pose during the year. ¹¹ Instead, it is possible that Edmund Henry Wuerpel (1866-1958) posed in Cowan's clothes. ¹²

1895: Whistler suggested sittings from 15 May on. ¹³ Cowan noted Whistler's comments during one particular sitting, on 4 June 1895. According to Cowan, he had some fourteen more sittings of four hours each in Paris from the middle of May 1895 until 4 June when Marion Peck (Mrs W. R. Farquhar) (1872-1942) arrived to sit to Whistler for Portrait of Miss Marion Peck y439. ¹⁴

1896: Sittings continued on 'The Grey Man' through 1896, according to the Pennells:

'he must have given Whistler about sixty sittings, averaging each three to four hours. He, like Whistler, was not in a hurry. The last sittings were in London, three years after the picture was begun. It always seemed as if the head needed just the one touch, with the sitter there, so that perfection might be assured.' ¹⁵

Despite the serious illness of his wife, Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896), Whistler suggested sittings in London the spring of 1896. ¹⁶ After her death, he suggested further sittings: 'if you give me a couple of mornings for a little further delicate lingering on the head, you can take away the picture with you!' ¹⁷ But in November he apologised:

'If when at length it hangs in your house, Mrs. Cowan thinks it looks at all like my distinguished friend her husband, I shall be more than delighted and probably not venture to be just, and offer him golden guineas for the endless sittings I undoubtedly owe so uncomplaining a model!' ¹⁸

1897: In January D. C. Thomson wrote that Whistler was at work on a full-length portrait 'of a Midlothian gentleman', presumably Cowan. ¹⁹ However, on 27 December Cowan wrote 'I rather despair of ever seeing it at all!' ²⁰

1898: Francis Howard (1874-1954) suggested Whistler exhibit the portrait with the ISSPG. ²¹

1899: In January 'A Gentleman in Grey' was still not finished, but Whistler sold Cowan two other paintings to set against Cowan's earlier payment:

'As to the two pictures, we said 400 for the Nocturne and 500 for the head, didn't we? - So if you like to send me 300, we will be quite squared until you get the Gentleman in Grey - who will I am sure come to you all the sooner and fresher when relieved of the premature check - which somehow or other has always been unlucky! - It will all come right though my dear Cowan and everything will be charming - for I am beginning to know a little more about painting, and when you have your picture you will have gained by it, and the time will be as nothing!' ²²

According to Albert Ludovici, Jr (1852-1932), Whistler found a man of similar build to pose in Cowan's tweeds, which he did every Sunday for three months. ²³ According to the sitter, Whistler's sister-in-law also posed in the suit, but 'she was not the same shape.' ²⁴

The Pennells record:

'[Cowan], like Whistler, was not in a hurry, but, unlike Whistler, he eventually got tired, and a model was called in and posed in Mr. Cowan's clothes. The last sittings were in London, three years after. Even then Whistler wrote Mr. Cowan that the head needed just the one touch, with the sitter there, so that perfection might be assured.' ²⁵

1900: Cowan calculated having given upwards of sixty sittings in all, after having sat each year from 1893 to about 1900, 1894 excepted. ²⁶

1901: On 5 November 1901 Whistler asked his sister-in-law to send the green curtains he had used as background for his portrait of Cowan from 110 rue du Bac to London. ²⁷

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Arrangement in Grey & Green' (1893, Whistler). ²⁸
• 'A Gentleman in Grey' (1899, Whistler). ²⁹
• 'Arrangement in Grey and Green: Portrait of J. J. Cowan' (1980, YMSM). ³⁰
• 'An Arrangement in Grey and Green. Portrait of John James Cowan (1846 - 1936)' (2015, NGS). ³¹

For consistency the 1980 title, 'Arrangement in Grey and Green: Portrait of J. J. Cowan', has been retained as the preferred title.

Description

Arrangement in Grey and Green: Portrait of J. J. Cowan, National Gallery of Scotland

A small full-length portrait in vertical format. It shows a middle-aged man in grey suit with knickerbockers and knee-length black socks, a grey hat held in his right hand. He is standing in three-quarter view to right, against a dark background.

Sitter

John James Cowan (1846-1936) of Edinburgh, a paper-manufacturer, began collecting about 1880 and became friendly with a number of Scottish painters. The bulk of his collection of modern British and Continental pictures was sold in 1926.

John Lavery had painted a portrait of Cowan's wife Sophia ('Sophie') Margaret Cowan (b. 1848/1850, m.1869) and their daughter Laura.

In 1900 Cowan commissioned the American John White Alexander (1856-1915) to paint his four daughters, and a portrait of himself, because by then he was sure Whistler would never let him have the portrait. He gave Alexander three sittings of one and a half hours. ³² The Scottish artist James Patterson (1854-1932) made a portrait drawing of Cowan in 1910, and a photograph of this by Patterson is in Glasgow University Library. ³³

Cowan's collection of Whistler's works included At the Piano y024, The Thames in Ice y036, Variations in Pink and Grey: Chelsea y105, Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Chelsea Snow y174, Nocturne: Black and Gold - Rag Shop, Chelsea y204, Nocturne: Blue and Gold - St Mark's, Venice y213, The Angry Sea y282, White and Grey: La Cour de l'hôtel, Dieppe y325, Chelsea Shop y374, Alice Butt (2) y438, The Little Nurse: Lyme Regis y443, Brown and Gold: The Curé's Little Class y455, Brown and Gold: Lillie 'In our Alley!' y464, and Study of a Girl's Head y487.

Technique

Technique

Arrangement in Grey and Green: Portrait of J. J. Cowan, National Gallery of Scotland

Cowan's reminiscences, published in 1933, included an account of his sittings to Whistler. He said that Whistler 'used any amount of black, and used to use a razor frequently in scraping away the paint.' Cowan noted Whistler's comments during one particular sitting, on 4 June 1895. At first Whistler was pleased with the progress of the portrait: 'He looks so damned well that if I didn't know better I would be afraid to touch him.' Later he said, 'It is devilish pretty. This will be an enamel if it is nothing else. When you are tired you have a devilish look.' Cowan posed from 11.15 to 12.27 a.m., but at 12.30 there was 'Lots of rubbing out and despair', and Whistler said, 'It just wants two touches, but how the devil to do them I don't know. We have got into trouble.' On this occasion Cowan posed until 2.45 p.m. when Miss Peck arrived for a sitting for Portrait of Miss Marion Peck y439. ³⁴

Conservation History

n/a

Frame

117.70 x 73.00 x 5.00 cm.

History

Provenance

• 1893: commissioned by John James Cowan (1846-1936), Edinburgh;
• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1910: given by her to the National Gallery of Scotland, in her own name and that of J. J. Cowan.

On 15 February 1893 Whistler suggested sittings should start mid-May for a half-length or small full-length at 600 guineas, or a head at 400 guineas. ³⁵

On 24 June 1893 Whistler acknowledged receipt of a cheque for 600 guineas for 'Arrangement in Grey and Green'. ³⁶ In 1898, still not having received the portrait, Cowan suggested that he could buy another picture from Whistler, and 'the price of one or other might stand over till I get my own picture, or rather your portrait of me.' ³⁷ In 1900 there was still a question about payment, and Cowan must have suggested sending a further cheque, but Whistler wrote:

'there is no question between us about the cheque for your portrait - That you shall write out for the 600 gs. as originally agreed upon - and this time, when the picture is in your hands - Nothing would induce me again to receive gold in advance! - from anyone!' ³⁸

Whistler considered the painting unfinished and did not wish Cowan to have it, but did not list it among the works to be destroyed after his death, and it was accordingly delivered to the National Galleries, with Cowan's approval, by Whistler's executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958).

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. 402), plate 255, as 'Arrangement in Grey and Green: Portrait of J. J. Cowan'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• Thomson, David Croal, ‘New Pictures by Mr. Whistler’,Art Journal, January 1897, pp. 10-11, at p. 11.

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, pp. 156-57, 170-71.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, pp. 320-21.
• Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, 518, 527-28, 534, 559, 564.
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. 272-73.
• Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, p. 128.

Books, General

• Cassin, Michael, Art And--: The Expressive Arts and the Collections of the National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, 2000, p. 48.
• Cowan, John J., From 1846-1932, Edinburgh, 1933, pp. 156-57, 168-73, portrait by J. W. Alexander repr. f.p. 113.
• Ludovici, Anthony, An Artist's Life in London and Paris 1870-1925, New York, 1926, p. 102.
• Strong, Roy C., Brian Allen, The British portrait 1660-1960, Antique Collectors' Club, 1991, p. 361.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• 'The National museums', The Year's Art, London, 1929, p. 40.

Websites

• National Galleries of Scotland website at https://www.nationalgalleries.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 224).

Other

• Frances Fowle, Alexander Reid in context: collecting and dealing in Scotland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 1993.
• Tenniswood-Harvey, Arabella, Colour-Music: Musical Modelling in James McNeill Whistler's Art, PhD Thesis, University of Tasmania, 2006.