James McNeill Whistler Study of Draped Figures

Date c.1864-1865
Materials Oil on canvas
Dimensions 39.7 cm x 57.5 cm
Marks None
Further information GLAHA 46335.
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 (58, plate 16).

Note Notice how fluid Whistler’s paint is in this sketch. It perfectly suggests the filmy nature of the women’s robes and the lines of the brush give the impression of the folds and fall of the fabric. The faces are left undefined because this picture is primarily a study of colour harmonies. Look how Whistler used two principal colours, green and gold, and subtly repeated these throughout the painting on the kimonos that the women wear and the oriental fan on the floor. The railings and bamboo blind behind the women are similar to those found in Japanese prints. As in Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony, the women are placed against the industrial backdrop of the Thames. However, here the factories and warehouses of the riverbank are left undefined. There is nothing to take away from the beauty of form and colour.

Related works GLAHA 46029, YMSM 56, 88.