The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Little Lizzie Willis dates from 1896 or 1897. ¹ Whistler painted Lizzie Willis, the daughter of his housekeeper at 8 Fitzroy Street, about 1896, according to Harold Wright (1885-1961), probably on information provided by the artist's sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). ² Lizzie is mentioned in Whistler's letters in 1897, when her mother was housekeeper for the artist at 8 Fitzroy Street. ³

Little Lizzie Willis, The Hunterian

In December 1899 Whistler told Miss Birnie Philip to ask the Goupil Gallery in London to send two portraits of Lizzie to him in Paris, 'you had better send over the little Lizzie - there are two - the old black one, and a rather fair one barely begun.' ⁴ It is likely that this is the 'fair one' and unlikely that he worked on it further.

Images

Subject

Titles

Whistler's own title is not known. Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Little Lizzie Willis' (1973, Colnaghi). ⁵
• 'Little Lizzie Willis' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

Description

Little Lizzie Willis, The Hunterian

An unfinished half-length portrait of a young girl in three-quarter view to right, painted in vertical format. She stares at the viewer with big brown eyes; she has a pale face, and brown hair with a couple of curls falling over her forehead. Her clothes are barely indicated with a few brushstrokes. The background, thinly brushed in, is a dark shade of terracotta.

Sitter

Elizabeth Willis (fl. 1890/1900). This is one of three portraits of Lizzie Willis. In this portrait she appears pale, plain and serious, unlike the beauty that appears in Little Juniper Bud - Lizzie Willis y475 and the pretty Little Lizzie Willis y476.

The 1901 UK census lists an Elizabeth M. Willis, the eight year old daughter Thomas J. Willis, frame maker, and Mary A. Willis. They had two daughters and three sons, and were then living in Hernshaw street, Southwark. However, the girl in the portrait seems a little older.

Technique

Technique

Little Lizzie Willis, The Hunterian

It is painted on a plain open weave tabby canvas primed in grey over a white under-layer. A few crayon or graphite lines are visible across her neck and chest, suggesting the figure was drawn lightly before being painted. The background was painted broadly, and some suggestions of dress were sketched in roughly with an almost dry brush. The mouth and the adjacent area were lightly rubbed down and reworked, but the rest of the face was more fluidly painted and carefully modelled; flickering brushstrokes define the eyes and eyebrows. The face is lit from upper left, and a comparatively broad brushstroke around the face makes it stand out from surrounding areas. Paint has been partly scraped off the bottom of the canvas, which is clearly unfinished.

Conservation History

The canvas is unlined. It was 'cleaned and varnished' by John Bull for Agnew's in 1980 and surveyed by Clare Meredith in 1980, who found it in sound condition. She noted, interestingly, that some 5-8 cm hairs were embedded in the paint layer below the sitter's chin and at lower right, coming either from the artist's head or a broad decorator's brush. ⁷

Frame

Little Lizzie Willis, The Hunterian

Little Lizzie Willis, frame detail

A Whistlerian Flat frame, dating from the 1920s. ⁸ Size: 58.2 x 38.0 x 3.6 cm.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death in 1903, and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1958: bequeathed by Miss R. Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

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. 476), plate 307, as 'Little Lizzie Willis'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Anderson, Ronald, and Ann Koval, James McNeill Whistler: Beyond the Myth, London, 1994, p. 417.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Hopkinson, Martin J., James McNeill Whistler at the Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 1990, p. 48.

EXHIBITION:

• Glasgow University's Pictures, London, Colnaghi, 1973 (cat. no. 104) as 'Little Lizzie Willis'.
• Sutton, Denys, and Martin Hopkinson, ホイスラー展. Whistler Exhibition in Japan, Tokyo, 1987 (cat. no. 32).
• James McNeill Whistler: selected works from the Hunterian Art Gallery, Dixon Gallery, 2004-2005; Taft Museum of Art, 2005; Philbrook Museum of Art, 2005; Boca Raton Museum of Art, 2005-2006; Taylor Museum of the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, 2006; Nevada Museum of Art, 2007; Tyler Museum of Art, 2007 (cat. no. 8).

Journals 1906-Present

• Shaw, Edith, and Margaret F. MacInnes [M. F. MacDonald], ‘Four Years with Whistler’, Apollo, vol. 87, March 1968, pp. 198-201, at pp. 198, 201 note 5.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41278.
• Art UK website at www.art.co.uk.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.