Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit dates from between 1898 and 1899.
In September 1898 the artist Gwen John – Gwen Salmond (1877-1958) – then a student at the Académie Carmen in Paris, wrote that Whistler was 'going to paint a picture of Madame la Patronne ... and hang it in the studio for the students to learn from.' 1 'Madame la Patronne was Carmen Rossi (b. ca 1878. The result may have been this painting or Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen y507.
It was painted in Paris about 1898, according to a note on the back written by the art dealer Harold Wright (1885-1961), on information from Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958).
This is partially confirmed by a letter written on 28 October 1898 by Whistler to Miss Birnie Philip, 'I want you to drive over to Chapuis ... and say that Monsieur hopes he is getting on all right with the two ovals - and his frames - Ask when I am to have them.' 2 The frame was indeed made by the Paris frame-maker Claude Chapuis (1829-1908).
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit y506 and Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen y507 date from about the same period as some other oval portraits by Whistler such as A Paris Model y458.
It may have been completed in 1899 and was first shown at the 2nd Exhibition, Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, London, 1899 (cat. no. 133).
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, frame detail
Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen, The Hunterian
Plan of a panel of pictures for the ISSPG, Tate Archive, London
Paintings at the ISSPG, Glasgow University Library
One title has been suggested, with varying punctuation:
'Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit' is the preferred version.
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
A half-length portrait of a woman, in vertical oval format. She is wearing a dark pink v-necked dress, with a pink necklace. She has black hair with a central parting, and poses against a dark background. She is seen in three-quarter view to left, and her hands are clasped in front of her, probably over the back of a chair.
This is one of several portraits of Carmen Rossi (b. ca 1878, proprietor of the Académie Carmen, which include Rose et or: La Napolitaine y505, Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit y506, and Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen y507.
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen, The Hunterian
She is wearing the same dress as in Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen y507.
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen, The Hunterian
Whistler painted several portraits of Carmen Rossi. She is here wearing the same dress as in Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen y507. Whistler always thought of her as young and poor as when he had first known her, whereas Annulet Andrews (1864-1944) described her around 1900 as a sturdy woman of twelve stone aged about forty. 5
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
There are signs of alterations above her arm, on the right. Her hands are unfinished and of a curious shape.
Unknown.
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, frame detail
Oval frame with cassetta moulding. 6 The frame bears the stamp of the Maison Chapuis, Paris. It was probably one of two frames being made for Whistler by Claude Chapuis (1829-1908) in October 1898. 7
Miss Birnie Philip was prepared to sell this painting, since she already had another portrait of Carmen Rossi. In 1908 the portrait was sent to Worcester Art Museum, MA, where the president, Rev. Daniel Merriman (1838-1912), decided to exhibit, but not to buy it. 8 It was with Colnaghi, London art dealers, from April 1917 to April 1921, but then returned to Miss Birnie Philip.
Plan of a panel of pictures for the ISSPG, Tate Archive, London
Paintings at the ISSPG, Glasgow University Library
Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit y506 was one of the two ovals that Whistler included in his arrangement for the 1899 ISSPG show. The other one was Rose and Gold: The Little Lady Sophie of Soho y504. They were received appreciatively by the art critic of The Nation as 'lovely harmonies of color.' 9
1: Holroyd, Michael, Augustus John: A Biography, I : The Years of Innocence, London, 1974, vol. 1, p. 88.
2: [28 October 1898], GUW #04743.
3: 2nd Exhibition, Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, London, 1899 (cat. no. 133).
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 506).
5: Andrews 1904 [more], at pp. 319-20.
6: Dr S. L. Parkerson Day, Report on frames, 2017. See also Parkerson 2007 [more].
7: Whistler to R. Birnie Philip, [28 October 1898], GUW #04743.
8: Merriman to Freer, 1 April 1908, GUL Whistler BP II 4176.
9: The Nation, 29 June 1899, vol. 68, p. 493.