James Abbott McNeill Whistler, P.R.B.A. (1834-1903)

Sketch of Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cecily Alexander

Details

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, P.R.B.A. (1834-1903)
Sketch of Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cecily Alexander
signed with butterfly (centre left)
pen and dark brown ink
5 x 3.5/8 in. (14 x 9.2 cm.)
Executed circa 1881

Provenance

Given by the artist to Charles Bullen Waller, thence by descent to Mrs. Marzetti by 1906.
with Abbott & Holder, London, 1990.

Literature

A. McLaren, M. MacDonald, R. Spencer & H. Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1980, no.129.
M. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours A Catalogue Raisonn, London, 1995, p.317, no.843 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

Drawn upside down and on the back of Hogarth Club (27 Albemarle Street, London, W1) notepaper, and probably from memory, this sketch shows the main features of the finished portrait (Tate Gallery, London), but in this sketch the sitter's right leg is forward instead of her left. The portrait had taken over seventy sittings and Miss Alexander had often left the studio in tears.
(see M. MacDonald, loc. cit.).

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