Key Figures

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Cicely Henrietta Alexander (1864-1932)
Cicely was the second daughter of the banker and collector William C. Alexander and his wife Rachel Agnes Lucas. Her father commissioned Whistler to paint her portrait in 1872, Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 129] because he liked Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter’s Mother [link – Painting/Portraits/YMSM 101]. The picture required over 70 sittings before it was completed.

William Cleverly Alexander (1840-1916)
Alexander was a wealthy banker and art collector. He married Rachel Agnes Lucas in 1861. They had three sons and seven daughters: Agnes Mary ('May'), Cicely Henrietta, Helen C., Grace, Emily M., Rachel F. and Jean I. He was an important patron of Whistler [link – Design/Interiors/GLAHA 46050-3].

Thomas Armstrong (1832-1911)
Armstrong was an English painter and designer. In 1853 he became a pupil of Ary Scheffer in Paris. There he became close friends with E. J. Poynter, T. R. Lamont and Whistler. Their student lifestyle in Paris was described by George Du Maurier in his novel Trilby (1894), in which Armstrong appears as the character Taffy. Armstrong went on to paint classically-inspired figurative paintings and decorative schemes without a strong narrative content. He also painted portraits and landscapes. In 1881 he became Director of the Art Division of the South Kensington Museum.

Otto Henry Bacher (1856-1909)
Bacher was an American book illustrator and etcher. He was one of the “Duveneck boys”, a group which also included Robert Frederick Blum and Harper Pennington. Bacher became a collaborator with Whistler. Whistler described him as “one of his favourite pupils”.

Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
Baudelaire was a French poet and critic. He was famous for his controversial volumes of poetry, Les Fleurs du mal (1857) and Petits poèmes en prose (1868), which were overtly sexual and blasphemous. Whistler's Realist images of the Thames were influenced by Baudelaire's On the Heroism of Modern Life (1845) in which he urged artists to paint modern city life. Whistler's artistic theory was also greatly influenced by Baudelaire's theory of 'correspondence' between the arts of music and painting.

Robert Frederick Blum (1857-1903)
Blum was an American painter and illustrator. In Venice in 1880 he joined a colony of American painters established by Frank Duveneck and met Whistler. Under the influence of these two men he took up etching. Blum went on to travel with William Merritt Chase, another artist influenced by Whistler, with whom Blum founded the Society of Painters in Pastel in New York. Like Whistler, Blum was interested in the art of Japan and he lived there from 1890 to 1892.

Sir Joseph Edgar Boehm (1834-1890)
Boehm was an Austrian sculptor. He became a British citizen in 1865, and was appointed Sculptor-in-Ordinary to Queen Victoria. He produced a bust of Whistler in terracotta in 1872. In 1878 Whistler intended to paint Boehm's portrait, but the painting was never carried out. Whistler and Boehm were on extremely friendly terms and supported each other in their careers. Whistler affectionately referred to Boehm as “Spuch” and Boehm called Whistler “Mac”. Whistler asked his friend to appear as a witness on his behalf at the Ruskin v Whistler trial of November 1878.

Eugène Louis Boudin (1824-1898)
Boudin was a French painter who became well known for his views of harbours, rivers, coasts and beaches. His interest in changing atmospheric effects and broken brushwork influenced the Impressionists. His works were included in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.