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Lot Essay
This striking pastel portrait depicts the artist’s second cousin, Beatrice, transfixed as if caught between two worlds: the one from where the viewer gazes on her; and that hidden behind the closed door. It presents a level of psychological depth unusual in a portrait commission. Beatrice stares directly at the viewer, her hand resting on the door handle as she crosses the threshold between childhood and womanhood. The modern, full frontal pose and the cut-off doorway ‘creates the effect a professional photographer might require’ (Brown, op. cit., p. 75).
Parallels can be drawn between Stott’s portrait and the work of his friend Whistler: the muted tones and use of pink and white recall Whistler’s Symphonies in White of the late 1860s (fig. 1). However, the posture and the directness of the sitter’s gaze show the more radical influence of the Symbolist artist Fernand Khnopff. Khnopff’s Portrait of Jeanne Kéfer (fig. 2), bears some striking similarities to the present work, and was probably seen by Stott in the Les XX exhibition in Brussels in 1885. Stott, along with Whistler, had been invited to exhibit by the group in the previous year, a sign of the recognition Stott was receiving as one of Europe’s most avant-garde artists.
Parallels can be drawn between Stott’s portrait and the work of his friend Whistler: the muted tones and use of pink and white recall Whistler’s Symphonies in White of the late 1860s (fig. 1). However, the posture and the directness of the sitter’s gaze show the more radical influence of the Symbolist artist Fernand Khnopff. Khnopff’s Portrait of Jeanne Kéfer (fig. 2), bears some striking similarities to the present work, and was probably seen by Stott in the Les XX exhibition in Brussels in 1885. Stott, along with Whistler, had been invited to exhibit by the group in the previous year, a sign of the recognition Stott was receiving as one of Europe’s most avant-garde artists.