The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen probably dates from 1898 but could date from slightly later. ¹

Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen, The Hunterian

'Harmony in Rose & Green (Carmen) ... One of the "Carmen" series', was painted in Paris about 1898, according to a label on the back written by Harold Wright (1885-1961), probably from information given by Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) .

This dating is confirmed by its similarity to other portraits of Carmen Rossi (b. ca 1878, and by the known association of Carmen and Whistler in Paris at this time. The earliest portrait of her was Crimson note: Carmen y441, followed by this painting, Rose et or: La Napolitaine y505 and Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit y506.

Carmen was certainly visiting Whistler in Paris by the summer of 1898: in August of that year he wrote: 'Carmen has appeared upon the scene - and by way of improving the occasion, I made her give Euphrasie a lesson in the [cleaning] of the brushes!' ² By September she was established as proprietor of the Académie Carmen at No. 6 Passage Stanislas, Paris, and they were in frequent contact over its affairs in 1899 and 1900 (the Académie closed in 1901). It is possible that either Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit y506 or this painting could have been the portrait of Carmen Rossi which, according to the artist Gwen John – Gwen Salmond (1877-1958) – Whistler proposed to paint at the Académie Carmen in September 1898. ³

On 28 October 1898 Whistler was at work in London and wrote to Miss R. 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.' ⁴ This suggests that he had completed two oval portraits, possibly including this one.

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title is known, with variations only in punctuation:

• 'Harmony in Rose & Green (Carmen)' (1903/1935, Harold Wright). ⁵
• 'Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

'Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen', the title given in the 1980 catalogue, is generally accepted.

Description

Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen, The Hunterian

An oval head and shoulders portrait of a plump woman wearing a deep purplish red v-necked dress and jacket. She is in three-quarter view to right, looking at the artist/viewer with a slight smile. Her dark hair is parted in the centre, curves over her cheeks, and frames her face. The canvas is in vertical format.

Sitter

Carmen Rossi (b. ca 1878. The warmth of colour and expression in her face make this more attractive than some of Whistler's portraits of Carmen Rossi, although it is not finished.

Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen, The Hunterian

Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit, The Hunterian

She is wearing the same dress as in Violet and Rose: Carmen qui rit y506.

Technique

Technique

Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen, The Hunterian

It is painted on a plain, tightly woven, tabby weave canvas. It may have been primed in grey. The thin paint was rubbed down by the artist on Carmen's hair, and on the pale green background. It is not finished, in that her arm is merely outlined in brown paint.

Conservation History

The varnish is uneven; some areas, such as the face, are more thickly varnished. However, the painting is structurally sound. ⁷

Frame

Oval, 65.3 x 52.7 x 3.2 cm; stamp of 'MAISON CHAPUIS' on stretcher. Claude Chapuis (1829-1908) was making frames for two oval portraits for Whistler in October 1898. ⁸ The stretcher bears the label of 'CHAPMAN BROS./ (CHELSEA) LTD./ Picture Restorers/ Carvers, Gilders etc./341 Kings Rd. Chelsea/ No. 1878', which must date from after 1908. ⁹

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to Whistler's 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. 507), plate 327, as 'Harmony in Rose and Green: Carmen'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Enaud-Lechien, Isabelle, James Whistler, le peintre et le polémiste (1834-1903), Courbevoie, 1995, pp. 168-69, 185, repr.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, p. 203.
• Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, p. 329.

Books, General

• Braddock, Alan C., Displacing Orientalism: Thomas Eakins and Ethnographic Modernity, University of Delaware, 2002, p. 179.
• Holroyd, Michael, Augustus John: A Biography, I: The Years of Innocence, London, 1974, p. 88.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Young, A. McLaren, Glasgow University's Pictures, Colnaghi, London, 1973 (cat. no. 93).
• ホイスラー展. Whistler Exhibition in Japan, Isetan Museum of Art, Tokyo; Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo; Shizuoka Prefectural Museum, Shizuoka, 1986, p. 194 (cat. no. 40).
• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, p. 75, repr. fig. 64 (not exhibited).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41218.
• Art UK website at artuk.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 232a).

Other

• None.