Lady Meux in Furs
In 1881, Henry Meux commisioned American artist James McNeill Whistler to paint three full lenth paintings of his wife, Valerie Meux, for 1,500 guineas. A fourth portrait in riding habit was also discussed but never commissioned.
The first portrait, An Arrangement in Black, now hanging in the Honolulu Museum of Art, Hawaii, depicted Valerie as a woman of sophistication. Dressed mainly in black, she emerges from a black background. Her velvet dress, black, low-necked, is trimmed with feathers. A floor-length white fur stole or cloak is draped over her left shoulder. Her hair is short, and dark with curls. She wore a tiara, a diamond necklace, a bracelet sparkled against a black glove, and earrings.
The second portrait, Harmony in Pink and Grey, now in the Frick Collection in New York, showed Valerie in half profile wearing a large, round pink hat, tightly corseted, with pouter-pigeon bust, billowing bustle, hoops and loops, a train of massed laces swept the floor.
The third painting, Portrait of Lady Meux in Furs, proved problematic and would lead to a long-running conflict with the Meuxs.
Whistler required a huge number of sittings from Valerie, something she quickly bored with. They were always fractious. Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington, the American artist and writer, a close friend of Whistler and frequent visitor to Whistler's studio in Tite Street, Chelsea, London, witnessed the artist and Valerie lock horns.
"The only time I saw Jimmy ‘stumped’ for a reply was at a sitting of Lady Meux [for the portrait in sables]. For some reason Jimmy became nervous – exasperated – and impertinent. Touched by something he had said, her ladyship turned softly towards him and remarked, quite softly: ‘See here, Jimmy Whistler! You keep a civil tongue in that head of yours, or I’ll get someone in to finish those pictures you’ve painted of me!’ – with the faintest emphasis on ‘finish.’ Jimmy fairly danced with rage. He came up to Lady Meux, his long brush tightly grasped, and actually quivering in his hand, held tight against his side. He stammered, spluttered – and finally gasped out: ‘How dare you! How dare you!’ – but that, after all, was not an answer, was it? Lady Meux did not sit again. Jimmy never spoke of the incident afterwards, and I am sorry to have witnessed it."
Wearing the sables, fur cap and carrying a muff was hot and tiring and so Valerie started sending her maid, Alice, as a stand-in.
Whistler was infuriated and responded immediately. He could not ‘struggle with melting maids in alterred [sic] furs.’ It was ridiculous.
And there were also problems with Henry Meux.
He decided that three portraits’ commissioned together should be cheaper than three portraits’ commissioned individually. The agreed price of 1,500 guineas, should be reduced to 1,200 guineas, a loss of 300 guineas. Reluctant to take the matter before the courts, accepting a lower payment than the one originally agreed, made Whistler’s blood boil.
"The third portrait I have done my best to finish but the whims and uncertainties of the lady made it impossible," wrote Whistler.
The third portrait may or may not have been completed. At any rate, Valerie never took possession of it and even at the time of her death, she was unsure where it was. In her will, she left the portrait to the National Gallery in London, ‘should it ever be found’. It is now presumed Whistler destroyed the work.
Did Valerie actually like Whistler’s portraits? It is noticeable that she does not openly say so to Whistler.
Colonel The Hon. F. H. (Fred) Cripps, a friend of Valerie Meux: "Lady Meux was one of a little band of women who held their own, and sometimes more, with the redoubtable Whistler. He tried to insist on having his own way all the time, but Lady Meux did not, by any means, share his views about a picture of herself which had been commissioned. It was to be a combination of ‘arrangements’ and ‘harmonies’, neither of which characteristics was to her taste."
Much of what is known of Lady Meux in Furs comes from a photograph taken during its creation. Whistler appears to have painted it at intervals from 1881-1886. It was oil on canvas, about 191cm x 89cm (75ins x 35ins).
Above (left to right): Lady Meux in Furs, completed with the magic of AI; a photograph of the work in progress; An Arrangement in Black; Harmony in Pink and Grey.
Sources:
Pennell, Elizabeth Robins and Pennell, Joseph. The Life of James McNeill Whistler, J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1911.
Whistler Sources: Whistler to Sir Henry Meux's solicitor, E. Upton, 11 July 1889, GUW #03549; letter dated, 1882/1883, from Whistler to Lady Valerie Meux, GUW #09299; Letter dated, 22 March 1882, from Whistler to Samuel Wreford Paddon, a diamond merchant and collecto6; GUW #13132 and #03432; Whistler to H. E. Whistler, September 1881, GUW #06694; MS Whistler M338; MS Whistler M338a; MS Whistler M337; MS Whistler U25.; MS Whistler U26.; MS Whistler M339, M340, M341; MS Whistler M342.; MS Whistler M344.; MS Whistler M345. See: Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, James McNeill Whistler: The paintings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2020: http://whistlerpaintings.gla.ac.uk
Cripps, F. H. (Fred), Colonel The Hon., Life’s a Gamble, Odhams Press Limited, London, 1957.
The photograph of lost oil painting by James McNeill Whistler, 1881, University of Glasgow.
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