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Description: | RH CRE WHISTLER, Beatrix; (English; 1857-1896) The sitter is the artist's sister, Ethel Birnie Philip (1861-1920). Her nickname was Bunnie. She worked as a secretary for Whistler from 1890 until her marriage to the American writer, Charles Whibley (1859-1930) in 1894. She posed for many of Whistler's paintings and drawings, now in the Hunterian collection (see for example GLAHA 46318, 49035). Beatrix Whistler often drew Ethel in fashionable clothes.
The diary of Beatrix Whistler's first husband, E. W. Godwin (1833-1886), architect and designer, records that she studied costume and dress from prints in the British Museum between 1870-1882 (Godwin Diary, Victoria and Albert Museum). Sometimes she studied with Godwin, but in 1879 she was paid to assist the history painter Richard Caton Woodville in his costume research (see MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Beatrice Whistler: Artist and Designer', Glasgow: Hunterian Art Gallery, 1997, pp. 23-24). Although her sketches have not survived, drawings like this illustrate her interest in costume.
Godwin designed costumes and was an enthusiastic supporter of the dress reform movement, which campaigned against restrictive fashions like corsets and heavy clothes. Her second husband, Whistler, often designed his sitter's outfits.
Ethel is wearing a very similar outfit in a drawing on the back of this sheet and in GLAHA 46580.
Birnie Philip Bequest, 1958 | 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 | Subjects: | PORTRAIT : PHILIP, ETHEL BIRNIE : WHIBLEY, MRS CHARLES : HAT : VEIL : FLOWERS : | 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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