James McNeill Whistler

Black and Red: The Egyptian

Date c.1890 – 1892
Materials Chalk and pastel on paper laid down on card.
Dimensions 27.6 cm x 18.1 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly at the centre right; inscribed at the bottom left: "o"; inscribed by Beatrix Whistler on verso: "Black and Red".
Further information GLAHA 46151.
Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1995 (1275).

Note Whistler made many drawings of female models draped in transparent robing. For Whistler, such women were symbols of beauty. They were often depicted as self-absorbed and inactive, and were frequently accompanied by exotic props to enhance their decorative role. Here the woman wears a red and black feathered cap, holds a fan in her hand and stands in front of an oriental curtain. Can you see the outline of a pagoda and warrior figures on the curtain at the left of the woman? Her unusual pose may be based on Egyptian art.
This drawing possibly relates to a commission Whistler received to paint two figures for the South Kensington Museum in London (now the Victorian and Albert Museum). However, Whistler only produced one finished design of a “Japanese art worker”. The other was to have been of an Egyptian goddess. This pastel may well have been considered unsuitable for a public building because the model was not fully clothed.