The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A Corsican Child dates from February 1901. ¹

It was painted in Ajaccio, Corsica, according to a label on the back written by Harold Wright (1885-1961), and based on information from Whistler's sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958). It was probably the painting referred to in a letter from Whistler to Miss Birnie Philip on 27 February 1901,

‘I staid on ... so that I might perhaps paint a head of a child or a lad that came ... well everything went against! ... It has rained for days ... and then inside it was impossible, for when the boy came to sit, out dribbled the wet sun and drove me crazy with his foolish reflections! Now Monsieur le Conservateur of the Museum here has lent me a corner of his atelier - well I was goose enough to rush into it with joy! - and of course I cannot possibly paint under his nose! - and yet I have been doing that very absurd thing quite hopelessly & uselessly - & bothered myself to death with little ragamuffins who are entirely too wild to sit!.' ²

In 1902 Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) of Detroit noted seeing a 'Head of girl called by Miss P[hilip] "The Ajaggio" ' (sic) in Whistler’s studio. ³ Freer may have been mistaken as to the sex of the child.

Images

Subject

Titles

Possible titles include:

• 'The Ajaggio' [sic] (1902, R. B. Philip). ⁴
• 'A Corsican Child' (1980, YMSM). ⁵

'A Corsican Child' is the preferred title.

Description

A Corsican Child, The Hunterian

An unfinished head and shoulders portrait of a girl with short dark hair, facing the viewer, and wearing a black dress, against a very dark background. She has an uneven fringe, and brown eyes. The portrait is in vertical format.

Sitter

The child must have posed in Ajaccio, Corsica, but has not been identified.

Technique

Technique

A Corsican Child, The Hunterian

It was painted with thin, almost dry breaststrokes on a canvas with mid-grey priming. ⁶ It is very thinly painted, with some rubbing on the face, as part of the painting process. The head is the area most finished, the lower part of the canvas being barely touched.

Conservation History

Unknown. It is in good condition.

Frame

A Corsican Child, The Hunterian

A Corsican Child, frame detail, The Hunterian

A Whistlerian Flat frame, dating from the 1920s. ⁷

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler’s studio at his death and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1958: bequeathed by her 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. 544), plate 362, as 'A Corsican Child'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Rotily, Jocelyne, Napoléon et moi! : James NcNeill [sic] Whistler en Corse 1901, Marseilles, 2008, pl. 7.
• Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, p. 323.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 77).
• Young, A. McLaren, Glasgow University's Pictures, Colnaghi, London, 1973 (cat. no. 116), repr.
• 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. 44).

Journals 1906-Present

• Beretti, Francois, 'Whistler à Ajaccio en 1901' Bulletin de la Société des Sciences Historiques et Naturelles de la Corse, 1978, vol. 250, no. 629, pp. 43-52.
• Hopkinson, Martin J., 'Whistler in Corsica', Print Quarterly, vol. 26, 2009, pp. 66-67.
• MacInnes, Margaret F., [M. F. MacDonald], 'Whistler's Last Years: Spring 1901 - Algiers and Corsica', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 73, 1969, pp. 323-42, at pp. 327, 335, repr. p. 330.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk/#/details/ecatalogue/41280.
• Art UK website at www.art.co.uk.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.