Key Figures

K to M

Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932)
Kennedy was an art dealer with H. Wunderlich & Co. in New York. He represented the company in dealings with Whistler from 1885 and was nicknamed “O'K” by Beatrix Whistler. After Wunderlich's death he became head of the firm. He first posed for Whistler in 1892, for a drypoint, Man in an Arbour. He compiled an important catalogue of Whistler's etchings, published in 1910, and edited and republished T. R. Way's catalogue of Whistler's lithographs in 1914.

John Lavery (1856-1941)
Lavery was an Irish born artist who lived in London and became a friend of Whistler. He painted portraits, genre and landscape subjects. He was associated with the Glasgow Boys and his works were influenced by those of Whistler. He was Vice-President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers when Whistler was President. He was one of Whistler's pallbearers at his funeral in 1903.

Alphonse Legros (1837-1911)
Legros was a painter, etcher and art teacher. He painted portraits, landscapes, genre scenes and historical subjects. He met Whistler in the late 1860s in Paris through Fantin-Latour, and for a while they formed a group called the Société de Trois (Society of Three). In May 1863 Legros and Whistler visited Amsterdam together. Legros settled in London in the summer of 1863 but by April 1867, the friendship between himself and Whistler was over, after a quarrel which came to blows. Friends tried to intervene, but the two men were never reconciled.

Frederic Leighton (1830-1896)
Leighton was an extremely successful painter and sculptor, dealing mainly with neoclassical subjects. He was a friend of Whistler’s and shared some of the same models, for example, Connie Gilchrist, and the Pettigrew sisters. In 1878 he became President of the Royal Academy.

Frances Leyland (1836-1910)
Frances Leyland (maiden name: Dawson) was the wife of Frederick Richards Leyland, a shipowner and art collector, whom she married in 1855. They separated in 1879. They had four children: Frederick Dawson, Fanny, Florence and Elinor. Her husband commissioned a number of portraits of the family from Whistler, including Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland (link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 106). She was known for her beauty, charm and lively character.

Frederick Richards Leyland (1832-1892)
Leyland was a ship-owner and art collector. He married Frances Dawson in 1855 but they separated in 1879. Leyland began to buy Whistler’s paintings in the 1860s. Whistler painted his portrait, Arrangement in Black: Portrait of F. R. Leyland [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 97]. Leyland also commissioned portraits of his family, including Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 106]. Leyland also bought La Princesse du pays de la porcelaine [link – Painting/Subject painting/YMSM 50]. Whistler’s Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room [link – Design/Interiors/GLAHA 46071, Peacock Room video], designed for Leyland's London house, caused the quarrel in 1877 which ended their relationship [link – Works on paper/Drawings/GLAHA 46079].

Frederick William MacMonnies (1863-1937)
Macmonnies was a successful American sculptor and painter. He introduced fountain sculpture in America. In the late 1890s he was close friends with Whistler. Both men admired the work of Velázquez. MacMonnies taught drawing with Whistler at the Académie Carmen in Paris.

Stéphane Mallarmé (1842-1898)
Mallarmé was a French Symbolist writer and poet. Whistler was introduced to him in 1888 through Claude Monet. Mallarmé translated Whistler’s Ten O'Clock Lecture into French. The two men became close friends. Whistler's frequent use of colour and flower titles for his studies of women, e.g. Rose et or: La Tulipe [link – Painting/Portraits/GLAHA 46316] reflects his friendship with the Symbolist circle around Mallarmé.

Edouard Manet (1832-1883)
Manet was a painter often associated with the Impressionists. However, like Whistler he was influenced by the Realism of Courbet, by the work of the seventeenth century Spanish painter Velásquez and by Japanese art [link – Painting/Japanese art]. His paintings were mainly of modern city life. Manet also played an important part in the rival of interest in etching. Whistler met Manet through Fantin-Latour in 1861.

Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938)
Mortimer Luddington Menpes was a painter and etcher. His second daughter was named in honour of Whistler, Dorothy Whistler Menpes. He met Whistler in 1880 and became his pupil and studio assistant. His pictures show the influence of Whistler and also Japanese art. In 1887 Menpes travelled to Japan and on his return lavishly decorated his house in the oriental style. In 1889 Whistler and Menpes quarrelled over the house, which Whistler felt copied his ideas.

Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Monet was a French painter and friend of Whistler who also studied in the studio of Charles Gleyre in Paris. He became a central figure in the Impressionist movement. He painted a number of views of the Thames, perhaps influenced by Whistler.

Albert Joseph Moore (1841-1893)
Moore was a painter. Like Whistler, whom he met in 1865, he was influenced by classical and Japanese art, and his paintings were primarily decorative in intention. Both artists were interested in the patterning of colour, line and form, and in creating analogies with music. Moore encouraged Whistler to make more finished preparatory studies for his paintings. Whistler's adoption of a butterfly signature may have been influenced by the anthemion with which Moore signed his work from 1867.