The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders may have been painted in 1896 or 1897. ¹

Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders, Art Institute of Chicago

The butterfly signature, which appears to be an integral part of the original painting, is of a style used by Whistler about 1896/1897.

Images

Subject

Titles

Alternative titles have been suggested:

• 'Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders' (1905, ISSPG). ²
• 'Portrait of a Young Girl' (1933, Brewster collection catalogue, Chicago). ³
• 'Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders' (1980, YMSM). ⁴
• 'Study of a Young Girl's Head and Shoulders (Baroness de Meyer)' (2015, AIC). ⁵

'Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders' is the preferred title, since the identity of the sitter is not certain.

Description

Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders, Art Institute of Chicago

A head and shoulders portrait of a young woman, in vertical format. Despite the title, she does not look like a girl. She is in three-quarters view to right, but looking directly at the viewer. She has thick brown hair cut in a fringe. She appears to be wearing a dark brown jacket over a dark blue scarf.

Sitter

It is possible that this is a portrait of Olga Alberta Caracciolo (1871–1930/1931), Baroness de Meyer, who lived in Dieppe between 1885 and 1897 and who owned this portrait by 1905. She had very long hair, which certainly is not suggested in this portrait, but could possibly have been rolled up at the back of her head.

Adolf de Meyer, Portrait d'Olga de Meyer, photograph, 1902

An early portrait of her in a pink dress by Jacques Émile Blanche (1861-1942), painted in Dieppe (private collection), and White Lilies by James Jebusa Shannon (1862-1923), as well as photographs by her husband Adolf de Meyer, show that she had somewhat similar features to those seen in Whistler's sketch. ⁶

The Art Institute website comments:

'A well-known beauty, Olga Caracciolo lived in Dieppe, France, likely where this work was executed, and later married the photographer Adolf de Meyer. Rather than a swift, abbreviated study for a larger composition, Whistler considered a work such as this to be a satisfying aesthetic whole. Indeed, small paintings serve as invitations for an intimate viewing experience and contemplation of the artist’s harmonies of color and form.' ⁷

See also Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple y324, which was also at one time thought to show Olga Caracciolo.

Technique

Technique

Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders, Art Institute of Chicago

The medium and technique have been analysed by Kimberley Muir at the Art Institute of Chicago. ⁸

It is painted thinly on a mahogany panel ca 10 mm thick, with a vertical grain. It was prepared with a pale grey ground of coarsely-ground lead white mixed with calcium compounds and barium sulfate. This shows through in many places. The pigment used for the portrait includes lead white, iron oxide or earth pigments, cobalt blue, vermilion, and bone black. ⁹

The face was first drawn roughly, possibly with charcoal, which is visible in places around the face and front of the figure. It was painted with soft, careful strokes of the brush, in thin paint; the hair was paint rather more dryly, and her clothes, much more roughly. It was left largely unfinished in the lower third of the panel. Muir states: 'A few final strokes were added wet-over-dry, including the slightly thicker and more opaque paint above the shoulders, some darker touches in the hair, and some of the background strokes above the head. The butterfly monogram was applied on top of these final strokes.' ¹⁰

Conservation History

The conservation and condition of the painting are discussed by Kimberley Muir in the Art Institute of Chicago online catalogue. The painting may have a natural resin varnish, and is in very good condition. ¹¹

Frame

Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders, Art Institute of Chicago

It is now in the broad, reeded frame illustrated above. ¹²

History

Provenance

• By 1905: owned by the Baroness de Meyer, Olga Alberta Caracciolo (1871–1930/1931).
• 1932: bequeathed by Annie Swann (Mrs Lewis Larned Coburn) (1886-1932), Chicago, to Walter Stanton Brewster (1872-1954), Chicago;
• 1933: given by W. S. Brewster to the Art Institute of Chicago.

The provenance is unknown before it was lent by the Baroness de Meyer to the 1905 Memorial Exhibition in London (cat. no. 8) as 'Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders'.

It is not known when it went to America, but it was later owned by Annie Swan (Mrs Lewis Larned Coburn) of Chicago, a collector of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. It was bequeathed by her on 30 May 1932 to Walter Stanton Brewster, who was also a notable collector. ¹³ He gave his entire collection of Whistleriana, including this painting, to the Art Institute of Chicago, of which he was a trustee. ¹⁴ The painting was housed permanently in the Institute from 1948.

Exhibitions

• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 8) as 'Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders'.

There is no known record of an exhibition 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. 486), plate 356, as 'Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 58) as 'Study of a Girl's Head and Shoulders', de luxe edition, repr. f.p. 76.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907, p. 217 (cat. no. 410).

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Clarke, Jay, and Sarah Kelly Oehler (eds), Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2020.

EXHIBITION:

• Special View for the Benefit of Chicago Public School Art Society of the Collection of Mr and Mrs Walter S. Brewster at their residence, 2704 Lake View Avenue, January 1933 (cat. no. 38).
• Summer Exhibition, Art Institute of Chicago, 1939 (cat. no. 5).
• Sweet, Frederick A., James McNeill Whistler, Art Institute of Chicago and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, 1968 (cat. no. 47).

Journals 1906-Present

• 'Walter S. Brewster', The Art Institute of Chicago Quarterly, vol. 48, no. 4, 15 November 1954, p. 77.

Newspapers 1906-Present

• 'Annie Coburn's Will bequeathed wealth of art', Chicago Tribune, Chicago, 29 June 1932.

Websites

• Art Institute of Chicago website at http://www.artic.edu (acc. 2019).
• Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website.

• Strother, Stephanie L., 'Cat. 36 Study of a Girl’s Head and Shoulders, 1896/97: Curatorial Entry,' in Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, URL.
• Muir, Kimberley, 'Cat. 36 Study of a Girl’s Head and Shoulders, 1896/97: Technical Summary,' in Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, URL.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 245).
• Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.

Other

• Brandau, Robert (ed.), De Meyer, New York, 1976, photograph of Baroness de Meyer repr. p. 15.