James McNeill Whistler

Little Juniper Bud – Lizzie Willis

Date c.1897 / 1899
Materials Oil on canvas
Dimensions 51.6 cm x 31.4 cm
Marks None
Further information GLAHA 46370.
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 (475, plate 344).

Note For this picture Whistler painted wet-on-wet, using a thick paint. He may have wanted to create a textured surface, but this painting is unfinished and he may have intended to smooth the paint surface at a later date by scraping, rubbing and/or washing. Although the picture is unfinished, the face of the sitter Lizzie Willis is painted with great character and subtlety. Lizzie was the eight-year-old daughter of Whistler's housekeeper at 8 Fitzroy Street in London. The title refers to her family's fondness for gin, in which juniper berries are an essential flavouring. The family was fired by Whistler after becoming spectacularly drunk on gin, while celebrating the Queen Victoria's Jubilee in July 1897.