Key Figures

C to D

Janey Sevilla (Lady Archibald) Campbell (c. 1846-1923)
Lady Campbell was the daughter of James Henry Callander of Craigforth, Stirlingshire and Ardkinglass, Argyllshire. In 1869 she married Archibald Campbell, the son of the Duke of Argyll. She was a cultured and beautiful woman. Whistler painted several portraits of her. She and her husband put on plays in the open-air at Coombe Hill Farm. Around July 1884 Whistler painted Lady Campbell as Orlando in Shakespeare’s play As You Like It (Hunterian Art Gallery).

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881)
Carlyle was a historian and philosopher. He was the author The French Revolution (1837). In the 1870s he was friendly with Whistler and sat for his portrait Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 137], having admired Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 101].

Eva Carrington
Eva was Whistler's model between 1898 and 1902. Her younger sister Gladys also modelled for him. Both girls went on the stage. Eva was tall, over six foot in height, graceful and acrobatic, and posed for a number of Whistler's dancing girls, e.g. A dancing woman in a pink robe, seen from the back [link – Works on paper/Watercolours/GLAHA 46136]. She also posed on occasion with a baby.

Gladys Carrington
Gladys was Whistler's model. Her older sister Eva also modelled for him. Both girls went on the stage.

William Merritt Chase (1849-1916)
Chase was an American painter and printmaker. He met Whistler in 1885 in London where they painted each other's portrait. Only Chase's portrait of Whistler was completed (1885; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). Whistler's influence is evident in Chase's paintings and his methods of exhibiting. He was an honorary member of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, of which Whistler was the first President.

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
Courbet was a French painter. He was one of the central figures within the Realist movement. As a young man in Paris Whistler greatly admired Courbet’s revolutionary spirit and his early paintings show a debt to the work of Courbet in their heavy brushwork and everyday subject matter. In the early 1860s Courbet and Whistler became good friends and Courbet painted a number of pictures of Whistler's mistress Joanna Hiffernan.

Hilaire-Germain-Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Degas was a painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, pastellist, photographer and collector. He was one of the founder member of the French Impressionist group in 1873, although he placed more emphasis on drawing and composition than they did. He preferred to be known as a “Realist” or “Naturalist” painter. Like Whistler, he admired the work of the Realist painter Courbet. Whistler and Degas also admired each other’s work and socialised in similar circles. However, there was also a sense of rivalry between the two men.

Auguste Delâtre (1822-1907)
Delâtre was an etcher and a popular artist’s printer. In 1858 he printed Whistler's French Set of etchings, and in 1861 the Thames Set. He showed Whistler how to experiment with surface ink in order to get a richness of effect. Like Whistler, he was also interested in Japanese art. In 1862 he helped to found the Societe des Aquafortistes, an etching society in Paris. Whistler was also a member.

Charles L. Drouet (1836-1908)
Drouet was a sculptor and collector who became friendly with Whistler as an art student in Paris from 1855 to 1859. In 1859 Whistler made an etched portrait of Drouet [link – Works on paper/Prints/GLAHA 46745].

George Du Maurier (1834-1896)
Du Maurier was an author and caricaturist. He trained as a painter in Paris in the studio of the painter Charles Gleyre. There he met Whistler and they became friends. However, their friendship was shortlived. In his later cartoons for the magazine Punch, Du Maurier ridiculed Whistler's art and lifestyle, and in his satirical novel Trilby (1894) he based the unflattering character Joe Sibley on the artist.

Frank Duveneck (1848-1919)
Duveneck was an American painter, etcher and art teacher. His pupils, who were described as the “Duveneck Boys”, included Otto Henry Bacher, Robert Frederick Blum and Harper Pennington. Duveneck met Whistler in Venice about 1879 or 1880. Together they experimented with etching. When Duveneck’s etchings were first shown at the Royal Society of Painters-Etchers and Engravers in London in 1881, they were thought to have been by Whistler. This unfortunate incident brought an end to Duveneck's and Whistler's friendship.