The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 509
Head of Teresa Cerutti
Date
Head of Teresa Cerutti probably dates from between 1897 and 1901. 1
According to the sitter, about 1897/1903 Whistler painted two portraits of her in Paris at 86 rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs, and the second 'was just my head, in profile, never completed', and Whistler offered to let her have one but she refused because 'they did not look like me, but like my aunt in Italy.' 2
A narrower date is more likely, between 1897 and 1901, when Whistler was still working in his Paris studio; see Portrait of Teresa Cerutti y508.
Images
Head of Teresa Cerutti, Whereabouts unknown
Teresa Cerutti as 'Salome', photograph 1900
Subject
Titles
Only one title has been suggested:
- 'Head of Teresa Cerutti' (1980, YMSM). 3
Description
Described by the sitter as 'just my head, in profile, never completed'; she thought it 'did not look like me, but like my aunt in Italy.' 4
Sitter
Teresa Cerutti as 'Salome', photograph 1900
The Italian artist and singer Teresa Cerutti (d. 1945). On 26 May 1910 she married Will Simmons (1884-1949), son of the mural painter Edward Emerson Simmons (1852-1931), who took over Whistler's Parisian studio after 1903. She was known as Teresa Cerutti-Simmons. She died in 1945. 5
Technique
Technique
She left a description of Whistler's portrait technique: 'With me he began at once by drawing in the bust with a brush and sienna', drawing only the outline at the first sitting, and at the second making 'flat tones in sienna, in many shades'; however, she described the second portrait as 'unfinished'. 6
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
Unknown.
Exhibitions
Unknown
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. 509) as 'Head of Teresa Cerutti'.
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- None.
Journals 1855-1905
- None.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- None.
Books, General
- None.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- None.
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
- None.
Unpublished
- Cerutti, Teresa, An Intimate View of James McNeill Whistler (t.s., n.d.), p. 18; mss, pp. 10-12, in Special Collections, Glasgow University Library.
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: Dated 'about 1897/1903' in YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 509).
2: Cerutti, Teresa, An Intimate View of James McNeill Whistler (t. s., n.d.), p. 18; mss pp. 10-12, copy in GUL.
3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 509).
4: Cerutti, Teresa, An Intimate View of James McNeill Whistler (t. s., n.d.), p. 18; mss pp. 10-12, copy in GUL.
5: Askart website at http://www.askart.com. The Billboard, 22 December 1945, vol. 57, no. 21, in American Radio History website at http://www.americanradiohistory.com (acc. 2016). 'BOHEMIAN WEDDING IN PARIS. William Simmons, American Painter, Marries the Dancer Cerutti', New York Times, New York, 29 May 1910.
6: Cerutti, Teresa, An Intimate View of James McNeill Whistler (t. s., n.d.), p. 18; mss pp. 10-12, copy in GUL.