James McNeill Whistler

The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist

Date c.1879
Materials Oil on canvas
Dimensions 188.9 cm x 88.6 cm
Marks Stamp on verso (stretcher): “BLANCHET / RUE SAINT BENOIT / PARIS”
Further information GLAHA 46320.
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 (207, plate 156).

Note Constance (“Connie”) Macdonald Gilchrist was a skipping-rope dancer at the Gaiety Theatre in London. According to Whistler’s friend the printer T. R. Way her portrait was completed in very few sittings. The fresh, quick brushstrokes seem to confirm this. The painting has an air of spontaneity. Notice that Connie’s hands and feet are not fully painted in. Can you see the shadow where her right foot used to be? Although a portrait, this painting is more about colour harmony than accurate representation. As in the White Girl where Whistler painted in different shades of white, so in this work Whistler wanted to painted blue on blue. Look at the rich blue of her sleeve in contrast to the pale blue of her dress. Connie also posed for other artists such as Frederic Leighton and John Lavery.