The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

According to Isaac Burnet Davenport (1854-1922), he posed for two portraits.

One portrait of Dr Davenport was started by Whistler in France in 1894 but abandoned, and another, Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport, was started in 1895, according to an interview with the sitter recorded by the Pennells. ¹ It is not, however, absolutely clear if these were on different canvases, and so they have been included as one catalogue entry here.

1894: According to Dr Davenport, about January 1894 Whistler asked if he was interested in 'a little portrait' and suggested he consulted his family before proceeding. ² Davenport agreed, and Whistler wrote thanking him for his 'graceful proposition' and suggested they discussed it in the studio. ³ Davenport posed at first in a specially selected dull-green suit. Both Whistler's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), and wife, Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896), were consulted about the pose, background and clothes: 'They had me stand with my weight first on one leg, then on the other, or ... on the table', he remembered, 'but' he added, 'Whistler did not always do what was suggested.' ⁴ Whistler would send a note or telegram summoning the sitter, often at short notice. For instance, on 26 January Whistler suggested 'next Wednesday … at one o'clock' for a sitting, and on 8 February he asked if Dr Davenport could come to the studio on 15 February 'about 1 o'clock as usual.' ⁵

Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport, Hood Museum of Art

1895: By 1895, it seems that a second portrait was under way. Davenport said later:

'After the first picture had been started (after 4 or 5 sittings) I heard nothing more from him, was not summoned again for another year - When another summons requested me to come to his studio for another series of sittings, I found him before a new, clean, canvas - He said nothing about what had really been done and I've never heard anything more about the first canvas … That year[,] several sittings, [followed by] another rest of one year.' ⁶

1897: According to Davenport, 'Another series of sittings. Painting sandpapered and polished each time.' ⁷ A brief note written by Whistler from 110 rue du Bac told Dr Davenport, 'Dont forget the brown coat! - & don't come tomorrow before 11.' ⁸ However, the portrait in its final form shows him in a black suit.

1898: There was a long delay, during which Whistler, in London, fell ill. On 23 October Rosalind Birnie Philip wrote to Dr Davenport that Whistler was 'very fit', and proposed a two hour sitting for 'your long promised picture' on the following Tuesday or Wednesday. ⁹ According to Davenport's account, he had a few sittings every year for several years, the last in 1902/1903, and the picture was repeatedly rubbed down. ¹⁰

1899: On 4 January Whistler postponed a sitting (his sister-in-law wrote to Dr Davenport, 'he still feels rather unfit for the fine work you are doing together') but suggested the following Monday at 10 a.m. ¹¹ At another time, Whistler cancelled a sitting 'owing to the unexpected and short visit of the Vanderbilts to Paris.' ¹²

1902-1903: Sittings continued until late in Whistler's life. Miss Birnie Philip, writing on Whistler's behalf from 74 Cheyne Walk, suggested a sitting in London on 'Tuesday at 1:30 ... as the picture does not dry any too quickly in this weather.' ¹³

1903: On 6 February 1903 Whistler said that Dr Davenport could come whenever possible for sittings and thus the picture would 'in course of a few years become the high polished and finished masterpiece they both have a right to expect.' ¹⁴ On 18 February he sent Dr Davenport a telegram asking him to come on the following Friday or Saturday at 2 p.m. ¹⁵ Miss Birnie Philip implied that the portrait was still being painted around April 1903. ¹⁶ Davenport said, 'In the last sittings he was becoming visibly much weaker .... his brush would drop from his hand ... he would fall asleep'. ¹⁷

1904: After Whistler's death, Miss Birnie Philip wrote to the sitter, 'When you look upon it you must always have bright and pleasant thoughts, and not allow the sadness of the last sittings to come into your mind, for Mr. Whistler always disliked illness and its surroundings.' ¹⁸

Acting on Whistler's instructions, Miss Birnie Philip, as his executor, had the portrait varnished and sent to the sitter. The art dealer William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925) wrote to Dr Davenport on 28 June 1904, 'we trust it will reach you in good order.' ¹⁹

Images

Subject

Titles

Suggested titles include:

• 'Portrait du Docteur Davenport' (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). ²⁰
• 'Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport' (1980, YMSM). ²¹

'Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport' is the preferred title.

Description

Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport, Hood Museum of Art

A head and shoulders portrait of a man in three-quarter view to left, on a canvas of vertical format. He has dark hair, a moustache, and a grey beard. He wears a black jacket and appears against a grey background.

Sitter

Isaac Burnet Davenport (1854-1922) was an American dentist living in Paris. He referred to himself as 'an honored model.' ²²

He was the son of William Whitney Davenport (1820-1899) and Azubah Minervia Davenport (1829-1915). He was the oldest of a large family, which included Idalette Azubah, Ella, Levi Caleb, Nannell, William Samuel, Kirk Addison and Ella. Furthermore he was the half-brother of Delos, Saphronia, Delos T., Christina Jane, Lucellus Edbert, Frone and one other boy, the children of Abigail Goodwin Davenport and W. W. Davenport.

His younger brother, William S. Davenport (1868-1938), was Whistler's dentist in Paris: Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip consulted him when in Paris in the late 1890s. Whistler attended seances run by the brothers Davenport in Paris. He told J. J. Cowan 'their operating was just like the flutter of a butterfly in his mouth'. ²³

The Hood Museum website comments:

'This ethereal portrait makes no allusion to the sitter’s occupation or prominent social standing. Instead, it suggests a deeply introspective individual concerned more with the life of the mind than material pursuits. ' ²⁴

Technique

Technique

Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport, Hood Museum of Art

Davenport posed at first in a specially selected dull-green suit and later in his ordinary black suit; he had a few sittings every year for several years and the portrait was repeatedly rubbed down.

The sitter remembered:

'Having decided on pose, Whistler made his drawing and began to put on paint ...

When I arrived, Whistler was either making his palette or sandpapering work of previous sitting -

After we had worked a certain time, he would begin putting in a few touches, then his servant would bring in breakfast ... during the breakfasts, it was evident he was studying me all the time. At times he would get up, leave me and go over to the picture - After we had had a short breakfast, we would stay till dark, or as long as we could see -

Some days he seemed to work rapidly and to accomplish a great deal - other days, he seemed perplexed, worried.' ²⁵

Conservation History

n/a

Frame

Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport, frame detail

Whistlerian style, American manufacture. ²⁶ 32 x 24 1/4" (81.3 x 61.6 cm).

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death, and sent to Isaac Burnet Davenport (1854-1922) (1854-1922);
• 1922: bequeathed to his daughter Nellie Burnett Davenport (1885-1972), Le Vesinay, France;
• 1972?: passed by family descent to Myriam Davenport Williford (1917-2003), Larchmont, N.Y., daughter of Ralph Slocum Davenport (1891-1955) and his first wife Francine (d. 1929), and to Myriam's daughter, Francine Davenport Williford (Mrs M. Oliver) (b. 1849);
• 1982: with Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc., New York;
• 1986: sold at auction, Sotheby's, New York, 29 May 1986 (lot 144, repr.);
• 1986: sold by Berry-Hill, New York art dealers, to Adolph 'Bucks' Naftali Weil, (1915-1995), Alabama;
• 1986: gift of Mrs Jean Kaufman Weil (1922-2012), and Mr Adolph Weil Jr., Class of 1935, to Hood Museum of Art.

After Whistler's death and on his instructions the portrait was varnished and sent to the sitter.

The Slocums of America gives details of the family:

'Doctor Isaac Burnett Davenport married in Paris 4 December, 1884, Josephine Victorine Coutin, who was born 8 June, 1854, at St. Jorioz, Haute-Savoie, France, daughter of Michel and Louise (Chappet) Coutin. ... This marriage has been blest with children, viz.:

i. Nellie Burnett Davenport, born 30 August, 1885, at Bois de Colombe, near Paris, France.

ii. Minnie May Davenport, b. 5 May, 1887, Neuilly, Paris.

iii. Ralph Slocum Davenport, born 12 April, 1891, at 30 Avenue de I'Opera, Paris.

iv. Fred Lincoln Davenport, born 24 January, 1894, at Le Vesinet, Seine et Oise, France; died 16 January, 1908.' ²⁷

Andrew McLaren Young (1913-1975) noted that the portrait was owned in 1961 by Mrs Davenport of Larchmont, New York, and information regarding it was to be obtained from Miss Nellie Davenport, Le Vesinay, France. ²⁸ Later it was owned by Myriam Davenport Williford, the daughter of the sitter's brother Ralph Slocum Davenport (1891-1955) and his first wife Francine (d. 1929), and passed to Mrs Williford's daughter Francine Davenport Williford. Francine deposited it with the Berry-Hill Galleries in 1982, and it was sold by Berry-Hill in 1986 and given by the purchasers, Mr and Mrs Adolph Weil, Jr, to the Hood Museum of Art.

Exhibitions

• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 28) as 'Portrait du Docteur Davenport'.

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. 426), plate 263, as 'Portrait of Dr Isaac Burnet Davenport'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 28) as 'Portrait du Docteur Davenport'.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, p. 321.
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 279.

Books, General

• Cowan, John J., From 1846-1932, Edinburgh, 1933, p. 85.
• MacAdam, Barbara J., American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 70, no. 48.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITIONS:

• James McNeill Whistler: Works from the Dartmouth Collection, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, 1988.
• American Viewpoints: Painting and Sculpture from the Hood Museum of Art, Timken Museum of Art, San Diego, CA, 2003.
• American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 2007.

SALES:

• Sotheby's, New York, American Paintings, Sale 5463, 5 May 1986 (lot no. 144).

Journals 1906-Present

• 'Whistler Portrait donated to Hood Museum of Art', Antiques & The Arts Weekly,, Hanover, NH, 18 December 1987, p. 85.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• 'Newly Acquired Whistler Portrait on View in Sack Gallery at Hood', Valley News Echoes, Hanover, NH, 5 May 1987, p. 1.

Websites

• Hood Museum Website at http://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu/.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 194).

Other

• None.