Art Institute of Chicago

Study for "Arrangement in Black, No. 2: Portrait of Mrs. Louis Huth" (recto); Study for "Symphony in Flesh Color and Pink: Portrait of Mrs. Frances Leyland" (verso)

James McNeill WhistlerLinkedCulture matchlcp-0d1a42681515

Date: c. 1872
Medium: Pastel (recto), and black chalk with touches of pink and white pastel (verso), on brown wove paper
Culture: United States
Department: Prints and Drawings
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 113070

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

Whistler created this sketch in preparation for a large-format painting. Made around the same time as the portrait of his mother, this drawing shows its subject, Mrs. Louis Huth, standing in front of a patterned textile and oriented to the viewer nearly in full profile. We know from a letter that Anna Whistler wrote late in 1871 that she tried to model for her son in a standing position but found it too physically demanding. No similar preparatory study for the painting survives; since Whistler lived with his mother, he had little need of a memory aid sketch like this one. He could paint his model directly from life any day of the week, except Sundays, when she demurred for religious observance.

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Provenance & credit

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Credit line: Gift of Walter S. Brewster
Provenance: Probably, Mrs. Louise Huth (née Helen Rose Ogilvy; later Mrs. Archibald Barwell How), acquired directly from the artist, 1872 [MacDonald 1995]. Robert Dunthorne, London and Liverpool [MacDonald 1995]. Possibly, Edwin Thompson, Liverpool; sold, London, Christie's, February 27, 1925, lot 101, as "Lady in Black Dress," to Brown and Philips, London [MacDonald 1995]. Possibly, D. C. Thomson, London, 1927 [MacDonald 1995]. Sold by Albert Roullier to Walter S. Brewster (1872-1954), Chicago, June 2, 1927 [invoice]; given to the Art Institute, 1933.