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Painting of head and torso of young figure

A figure faces the viewer, looking slightly upward and to the left. They appear young and androgynous, with shoulder-length brown hair, thick eyebrows, large brown eyes, pink cheeks, red lips, and a prominent chin. The figure wears a purple garment. Because of the painting style and some possible pigment discoloration, it is difficult to see the details of the figure’s clothing. They also wear a small black hat with a large red feather attached diagonally across the front. The background behind them is dark green.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.167
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Violet and Blue: The Red Feather
Other Titles
Former Title: Girl with a Red Feather
Former Title: Chelsea Girl
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1896-1900
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230329

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
50.8 x 31 cm (20 x 12 3/16 in.)
framed: 73.7 x 53.7 x 7 cm (29 x 21 1/8 x 2 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • label: verso, upper left of frame, printed text: THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES / BROOLYN MUSEUM / Eastern Parkway and Washington Avenue / Brooklyn, N. Y. / Artist [typewritten:] Whistler [handwritten, graphite:] W9421 / Title [typewritten:] Chelsea [label is cutoff]
  • inscription: verso, upper left of frame, black ink: 131

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
The artist, sold; to Charles Hessele, Paris, c. 1901. James Staats Forbes, before 1905. Mrs. Romaine Brooks, Capri and Paris. George Bernheim, Paris. Kelekian Collection, New York, by 1921. [American Art Association, January 20-31, 1923, lot 131], sold; to [Kennedy & Co., New York]. Alfred Ramage, Oil City, PA. [Jacques Seligmann and Co., New York], sold; to Grenville L. Winthrop, March 28, 1928, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.167
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
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Publication History

  • New Gallery, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (London, England, 1905), p. 75, no. 4, reproduced opposite p. 32
  • Elisabeth Luther Cary, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study with a Tentative List of the Artist's Work, Moffat, Yard and Company (New York, 1907), no. 368
  • Bernhard Sickert, Whistler, Duckworth & Co. (London, England, 1908), no. 161
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, J. B. Lippincott/W. Heinemann (Philadelphia, PA and London, England, 1911), reproduced opposite p. 392
  • Illustrated Catalogue of the Notable Collection of Modern French Pictures and a Group of the Noted American Artist Arthur B. Davies formed by and belonging to the widely known Antiquarian Dikran Khan Kelekian of Paris and New York, auct. cat. (New York, January 30-31, 1922), lot 131, repr.
  • Andrew McLaren Young and Margaret F. MacDonald, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, Yale University Press (New Haven, 1980), vol. I: no. 503, p. 215; vol. II: reproduced in b/w pl 323
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 434-35, cat. no. 461, reproduced in color, p. 461

Exhibition History

  • Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler: First President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, London, 02/22/1905 - 04/15/1905
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Brooklyn Museum, 1921, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, 01/01/1921 - 12/31/1921
  • Unidentified Exhibition, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1922, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, 01/01/1922 - 12/31/1922

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Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu