James McNeill Whistler

Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink:
Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland

Copyright The Frick Collection New YorkDate1871-1874
Materials Oil on canvas
Dimensions 195.9 cm x 102.2 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly at the centre right
Further information: Frick Collection, New York. www.frick.org
Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1980 (106, plate 105).

Note Frances Leyland posed for this work in the drawing room of Whistler’s own home at Lindsey Row, Chelsea. Whistler actually designed the dress she wore so that she would harmonise with the colour of his interior. Notice how he balanced the delicate ribbons and rosettes of her dress with the branch of blossom on one side and his butterfly signature on the other. This is an unusual painting. Frances Leyland was a wealthy and important patron of Whistler and yet the artist concentrated more on the beautiful sweep of her dress than on her face, showing her from behind. The title, with its musical allusion, enhances the suggestion that the true subject is beauty of colour and form. The little squares you can see on the floor are part of the rush matting which Whistler used in his home instead of carpets. Look how he uses them to create a decorative pattern. The painting was a companion to Whistler’s portrait of her husband, Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F. R. Leyland.

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