JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER (AMERICAN 1834- 1903), NUDE MODEL RECLINING (M.1606)

JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER (AMERICAN 1834- 1903) NUDE MODEL RECLINING (M.1606)Chalk and pastel on brown paper Signed with butterfly monogram (lower centre)17.5 x 28cm (6¾ x 11 in.) Executed in 1900.Provenance:In the artist's studio at his death and bequeathed to his sister-in-law Miss R. PhilipMiss Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958)P & D Colnaghi & Co Ltd., London, 1943The collection of Sir Bruce S. Ingram (1877 - 1963) O.B.E., M.C., bt. 2nd June 1943The collection of Professor Luke Herrmann (1933-2016)Thomas Agnew & Son Ltd., London, 1974From a Private CollectionExhibited:London, Thomas Agnew & Son Ltd., Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, Glasgow, Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, Whistler: The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, 1976, no. 55New York, M. Knoedler & Co, Inc., Notes, Harmonies and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, 29 November - 27 December 1984, no. 60London, Tate Britain, Degas, Lautrec and Britain, 6 October 2005 - 15 January 2006, touring exhibition to Washington, The Phillips Collection, 18 February - 14 May 2006, no. 86.Literature: M. MacDonald, Whistler: The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, Agnew's, London, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum, Glasgow, 1976, cat. No. 55M. MacDonald, Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1984, cat. No. 60, illustratedM. MacDonald, Whistler Pastels and Related Works in the Hunterian Art Gallery, Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, 1984, p. 30M. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours, New Haven, 1995, No. 1606A. Gruetzner Robins and R. Thomson, Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec. London and Paris, 1870-1910, Tate Britain, London, 2005-2006, No. 86, pp. 159,160, illustratedM. MacDonald, G. Petri, James McNeill Whistler: The paintings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2020, website at ., no. M.1606.The present work is one of three pastels depicting Ethel Warwick, all drawn on 4 June 1900 at the artist's studio, 8 Fitzroy Street, according to Birnie Philip. It has not been possible to identify who Ethel Warwick was, even though she also modelled for Philip Wilson Steer (1860-1942), sitting for his paintings, Hydrangeas, 1901 (Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge) and Portrait of Miss Ethel Warwick, 1902 (South African National Gallery, Cape Town)This study is more fully worked up than either of Whistler's other studies of Ethel, both of which are in the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery. In one, the model is apparently sleeping, with one arm tucked under her head (M.1604). It appears to have been rapidly executed, mainly in black, with a few coloured highlights. The third pastel shows Ethel in a more provocative pose, holding an apple in her left hand, with her arm draped over the back of the sofa (M.1605). Her figure has been worked up in coloured pastel, as has the detail of the apple, whilst the background is lightly sketched in. There is a further similar study of an unidentified model asleep, in the Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago which was also with Rosalind Birnie Philip and at Agnew's at the same time in 1974. As with so many of his pastels, he worked over another drawing with which he was dissatisfied. The present study is drawn over a study of a woman in blue against a yellow background, drawn lengthways. The present drawing has been signed with Whistler's lively butterfly monogram, based on a stylised design of his initials, which the artist developed in the late 1860s, following criticism of his overtly conspicuous signature. It became so synonymous with his work, that collectors who owned work that predated his use of the butterfly, sent their work to him to have it added retrospectively. His fascination with Japanese aesthetics must have played a role in its formation and it was carefully positioned as part of the overall composition and not merely a maker's mark. The artist's friends and biographer's Joseph and Elizabeth Pennell recalled seeing unfinished works with a highly finished butterfly included, emphasising the importance of the monogram in the overall scheme. Whistler's pupil, Mortimer Mempes recalls so regularly discussing where it should be positioned, that it used to be a little joke between us, and after some months of habit I was invariably able to put my finger on the spot where the butterfly should be placed to create the balance of the picture (M. Mempes, Reminiscences of Whistler, London, 1903, p..254). The design of his monogram evolved over the years and was altered to reflect the artist's mood, or specific events, for example at the time of his trial versus Ruskin, the butterfly had a sting in its tail. When in 1888, he was married, it had a stylised trefoil on its top to resemble his wife's initials and to symbolise luck. The present sheet formed part of several notable collections. Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958) was Whist