JAMES ABBOTT MCNEILL WHISTLER (AMERICAN 1834 - 1903)
A FIGURE AT AJACCIO

pencil and wash sketch on paper, signed with a faint butterfly (five squares to the right of the head of the figure) titled and documented on label verso
mounted, framed and under glass

image size 12cm x 8cm, overall size 32cm x 26cm

Label verso: P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Ltd., London (see additional photo) stating "Given to HH (Hector Hetherington) by Miss Birnie Philip March 1957"

Provenance: A gift from Rosalind Birnie Philip in 1957 to Sir Hector James Wright Hetherington GBE DL (21 July 1888 – 15 January 1965) Scottish philosopher, who was Vice-Chancellor of the University of Liverpool from 1927 to 1936, and from 1936 Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow until 1961 and by family descent. The vendor is a great-granddaughter of Sir Hector Hetherington. Hetherington was created a knight in 1936 and became KBE in 1948 and GBE in 1962. In 1961 he became a Freeman of the City of Glasgow.

Note: Rosalind Birnie Philip was twenty-two when her elder sister Beatrix (or Beatrice), Whistler's wife, died in 1896, and he thereupon made her his ward and executrix. She acted as companion, model, secretary and kept house for Whistler and her mother until their deaths. She inherited Whistler's estate in 1903. Eventually the University of Glasgow persuaded Rosalind to put her trust in them, and found a home for the riches of her collection. Her first gift was made in 1938 and included major paintings, prints, pastels and drawings. It was specified that this primary collection should be retained intact in the University. A second gift, of some six thousand letters, ledgers, books, catalogues and press cuttings, was made in 1955. Her bequest, in 1958, included the residue of Whistler's studio, some important paintings and works on paper, manuscripts and books, and a huge collection of prints. Sir Hector Hetherington was Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Glasgow from 1936 to 1961 and although it's unknown (by the writer) to what extent he was involved with securing the trust of Rosalind Birnie Philip and the gifts which comprise the Whistler collection, it's highly likely Hetherington would have played a significant role. The University of Glasgow records show Rosalind wrote to Sir Hector in 1955 and him to her in 1956.

Background: The University of Glasgow had already established a relationship with the American-born aesthete. During the 1880s, a group of artists including Edward Walton, James Guthrie, Joseph Crawhall, and John Lavery, of varied British and Irish heritage but all resident in Glasgow, had taken Whistler’s expressive portraiture and fluid landscapes as a lodestar for their own experiments in Impressionist-inflected naturalism. At the start of 1891, Walton wrote to Whistler on behalf of the group – the so-called Glasgow Boys – to ask if his portrait of Thomas Carlyle, Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2 (1872-73), was still for sale, as they wished to raise a subscription to buy it for the city of Glasgow. The bid was successful, and over the next few years, according to Ronald K. Anderson’s 1994 biography of Whistler, this group of artists several years his junior became his primary circle of friends. In 1897, when an article appeared in the Glasgow Evening News announcing the imminent formation of a new Art Society, taking as its members “secessionists from the Royal Society of British Artists,” it was the “amusingly impudent” Whistler who was named as prospective president. The new Society was partly established to boost the reputation in London of the Glasgow group, many of whom were now resident in the British capital but without a reputation there to match their continental acclaim. For the vainglorious Whistler, the society’s creation was a chance to cock a snook at the RSBA, which had removed him as president in 1888 following various controversies mostly of his own making. But it also secured his emotional and artistic connection to the Glasgow Boys and to their home city. The mutual affection was confirmed through the awarding of an Honorary Doctorate to the artist just before his death; in his delighted letter of acceptance, the ailing recipient drew attention to his Scottish ancestry through his mother’s family, the McNeills. From 1903 onwards, it was down to siblings and offspring to firm up the bonds established over the previous decade. Edward Walton’s son John became Regius Professor of Botany at the University of Glasgow, but also served as an honorary curator of fine art. In this capacity, he helped the university to persuade Rosalind that it could provide a suitable home for her collection. She made her first major gift in 1938 – much of which can only be seen at the Hunterian – including paintings, prints, pastels and drawings. Six thousand letters, ledgers, books, catalogues, and press cuttings following in 1955. Finally, on Rosalind’s death three years later, the residue of Whistler’s studio was bequeathed to the university, including works on paper, manuscripts, books and prints. In "James McNeill Whistler, Drawings Pastels and Watercolours, A Catalogue Raisonné " (Margaret F MacDonald) it states that pages from sketchbooks from 1901 in Ajaccio (capital of Corsica) were removed by Rosalind Birnie Philip and a number were sold to Colnaghi (London dealers). Numerous examples shown on pages 598, 599, 600 of the catalogue raisonné show that Whistler was using one or more sketchbooks with squared paper while in Ajaccio.

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