James McNeill Whistler 1834 - 1903

Sold: early 1950s
Denys Miller Sutton, London (acquired from the above sale)
By descent in the family to the present owner

Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven, Connecticut, 1980, no. 321a, p. 157, pl. 206a, illustrated

This painting is in excellent condition. Unlined. Under UV: there is one dime-sized area of inpainting in the upper left of the figure's hat. This painting would benefit from a clean.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Denys Miller Sutton (1917-1991) assumed the role of editor of the London-based arts magazine Apollo in 1962, and retained this position for about 25 years. During his tenure, he considerably expanded the scope of the publication, addressing sensitive art preservation issues, attracting new contributors among prominent art historians and writers, writing many articles himself, and devoting several issue to the collections of museums around the world. His strong and unrelenting interest in the visual arts was a lifelong pursuit: he served as secretary of the international commission for the restitution of cultural material after World War II, worked as an art critic for Country Life and the Financial Times, authored several books on painting, including works on Watteau, Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Picasso, and Whistler, and organized several exhibitions abroad such as shows on Constable and Titian in Tokyo. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (vol. 53, Oxford, 2003, p. 382) describes him as an “astute collector of art” with Impressionist and Modern works by Édouard Vuillard, André Derain, Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Pierre Bonnard, Emile Bernard and American works by John Singer Sargent and several by James McNeill Whistler, including the current painting Portrait of a Child.

In his 1966 monograph on Whistler, Sutton wrote of the artist’s portraits “… he hinted at the presence of that mysterious inner-world, which resides within us all, and the allusion to which became a major objective of his mature style”  (James McNeill Whistler - Paintings Etchings Pastels & Watercolours, London, 1966, p. 8).  Sutton continues “… in order to obtain the effect desired, which was really the apprehension of that mysterious quality in any personality which reveals the individual, he had to provide, as it were, an instantaneous statement of the special spark which vivified this inner world” (Ibid, p. 29). After an attempt at multi-figural compositions, by the 1870s Whistler concentrated on single-figures and in the 1880s, his portraits take on an air of mystery and betray an inner spark within his sitters, as seen in Portrait of a Child.  The portrait is at once direct and intense, magnified by his depiction of the young girl’s piercing eyes, and her strongly silhouetted figure placed within an almost intimate, cropped composition – a motif he used repeatedly throughout his portraiture.  His approach is thoroughly modern with rapid, gestural brushwork, a soft tonal palette, creating a beautiful union of form and color emphasizing the immediacy of the image and the youthfulness of his sitter.  Although the sitter is unknown, she relates to several portraits by Whistler painted at various periods, including Alice Butt II of the mid-90s (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), Brown and Gold: Lillie ‘In our Alley!’, circa 1896 (Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts) and A Corsican Child of 1901 (Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow).