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Description: | RU Inscr. verso in ink by William Webb: "Dear Mr Whistler ..." CRE WHISTLER, Beatrix; (English; 1857-1896) By the early 1890s, Whistler felt that he was not being suitably honoured in Britain, and, as he was making more important friendships in France, the Whistlers moved to Paris. In 1892 they bought 110 rue du Bac, Paris, where they lived until Beatrix's health began to fail in 1894. The house is in the Faubourg Saint-Germain, ten minutes walk from the Louvre, and close to the Bon Marché department store. The house is entered through a stone archway leading into a long tunnel, which opens out into a brick-paved courtyard of seventeenth-century houses, with a fountain in the middle. The Whistler's home is a one-storey garden flat, partly below ground level, and during their residence the front door was painted blue-green with a brass knocker. The garden, filled with trellises and trees, was as important as the interior of the house. The Whistlers' many guests would often stop their conversation to hear the hymns being sung by the monks next door at the Seminaire des Missions Etrangères. The house and garden are described in Henry James' novel 'The Ambassadors' (1903), as the home of the sculptor Gloriani.
Although they moved in during spring 1892, redecorating continued throughout 1893, with Beatrix Whistler taking an active role. She made many sketches of the interior, individual pieces of furniture, and trellises, some of which are preserved in the Hunterian collection (e.g. GLAHA 46552, 46571, 46548) and Glasgow University Library (GUW 06620, 06621). These drawings show wood-panelled interiors, which were painted in light colours, and eighteenth century-style furniture.
After her death, he sold his Paris home and studio nearby (at 86 rue Notre Dame des Champs) in October 1901. He told the collector Charles L. Freer: 'I have kept her house - in its freshness and rare beauty - as she had made it - and, from time to time, I go to miss her in it -' (Whistler Correspondence, Whistler to C. L. Freer, 24 March 1897, GUL F445; GUW 01513 (2004.12.09)).
There are 30 studies of birds in the Hunterian collection, ranging from pencil sketches to finished oil paintings. Beatrix Whistler kept pet birds and designed bird cages for them (see GLAHA 46575-46579). In 1895, the collector Charles L. Freer sent Beatrix Whistler a songbird from India, which she loved. It joined a white parrot and mocking bird at the Whistlers' home in Paris, 110 rue du Bac. They and Beatrix are depicted in the drawing 'Beatrice Whistler looking at her birds' (M1398, GLAHA 46196).
This is drawn on the back of a letter from the lawyer, William Webb to Whistler (Whistler Correspondence, W. Webb to Whistler, [20 September 1894?]; GUW 11241 (2004-12-09)). The letter discusses procedures in Whistler's libel case against 'Harper's Magazine' and the publication of 'Trilby' by George du Maurier., which contained a less than flattering caricature of Whistler as the idle apprentice, Joe Sibley.
Birnie Philip Gift, 1935 - not lendable | License: | http://www.hmag.gla.ac.uk/spirit/rights/ | Publisher: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Rights holder: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Source: | Hunterian Museum | Creator: | Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow | Identifier: | http://www.huntsearch.gla.ac.uk/cgi-bin/... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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