James McNeill Whistler

Red and Black: The Fan

Date c.1891-1894
Materials Oil on canvas
Dimensions 187.4 cm x 89.8 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly at the lower left.
Further information GLAHA 46386.
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 (388, plate 229).

Note Whistler affectionately called this painting of his sister-in-law Ethel Birnie Philip, The Red Bunnie; Whistler’s nickname for her was “Bunnie”. Whistler took a close interest in women's fashion, and the outfit Ethel wears is very up-to-date. She did not have a lot of money, so it was probably a copy of a designer outfit, inspired by pictures she had seen in magazines, and made up by her dressmaker. It is a striking portrait with its combination of red and black, reflecting current tastes for Spanish dress. The black fan she holds is painted with a very dry brush, so that Ethel’s red dress shows through. This cleverly suggests the gauzy material from which it is made. Whistler similarly suggests the feathery texture of the black boa she wears through the fingers of red paint that break up the surface of the black. Ethel is dressed to go out. Notice her elegant pointed hat and black gloves.

Related works GLAHA 46316, 46318, 46319, 46362, 46371, 46387.