Never mind Whistler's mother

What about his wife and her sisters?

This November I spent a few days in Boston. Visiting the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum was a major highlight, and in Substack notes I posted this picture, by James McNeill Whistler, that I came across while I was there. It’s called, The Sisters:

A friend commented on my note, wondering what the two sisters were talking about, and I glibly replied that they were perhaps exhausted by discussing what to have for dinner, as that’s really one of my least favorite conversations, despite being had on a daily basis.

But the question stayed with me, and I did a little digging. It turns out the women in this picture are Whistler’s wife, Beatrix, (reclining) and one of her sisters, Ethel Birnie Philip. According to the Smithsonian, we’re looking at Beatrix, aged 37, suffering from fatigue in the early stages of cancer.

Sculptor John Birnie Philip and his wife Frances Black had ten children - eight daughters and two sons - and three of those daughters were closely linked to James McNeill Whistler. Beatrix (1857-1896) was their second born and second daughter. An artist in her own right, her first husband was the architect, Edward William Godwin, whom she married in 1875. Here’s one of Beatrix’s better known works, held by the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, a portrait of Ethel:

Ethel Philip reading a Newspaper

Ethel (1861-1920), who was four years younger than Beatrix, regularly sat for Whistler and worked for him between 1893-4 as his secretary, before marrying the writer, Charles Whibley. Whistler, who had a penchant for nicknames, referred to Ethel as ‘Bunnie’. Here’s one of his paintings of Ethel/Bunnie:

Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian

Presumably the art world in London in the 1880s was fairly small. Whistler certainly knew Beatrix’s husband and Beatrix (who he liked to call Trixi) enrolled as one of Whistler’s pupils, as well as acting as a model:

Harmony in Red: Lamplight

Reading about Beatrix, who married Whistler in 1888, two years after Godwin’s death, it’s hard not to feel her talents have been seriously overlooked. She designed decorative arts (wallpaper, tiles and panels). According to the University of Glasgow, her studies for jewelry are in the National Gallery of Art and the Hunterian, and she also designed in stained-glass - all while organizing Whistler’s life, his studio, and promoting his print-making. Unfortunately, ‘separating her work from her partner’s is a primary problem in discussing her oeuvre.’¹ In fact this piece, “Caricature of Oscar Wilde” was incorrectly attributed to Whistler for a long time:

…and this painting was labeled as by Mrs. McN Whistler, but the ‘s’ in Mrs. was rubbed out and the painting was purchased in the belief that it was by her husband!

Peach Blossom

I find myself wondering who the model is for Peach Blossom. Looking into the women in The Sisters has really got me thinking about how I look at art and think - or don’t think - about the lives of artists’ models. Before he married Beatrix, Whistler had a far from conventional love life. Two long term mistresses were also models. Here’s one of his paintings of Joanna Hiffernan, who ended up caring for an illegitimate child he had with someone else:

Symphony in White, No. 1: The White Girl

And here’s Maud Franklin, with whom Whistler had a daughter:

Arrangement in White and Black

But however wayward Whistler might have been before Beatrix (and he was certainly something of a character - I mean who writes a book called, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies??) their marriage seems to have been a happy one, never mind an age gap of nearly twenty three years between them. Whistler’s letters, held by the University of Glasgow, highlight their happiness and are liberally sprinkled with more of his nicknames. Here’s an example from 1892:

Chinkie I am having a nice long talk with you - this Sunday afternoon - and yet I shall have scarcely time to tell you half - not that so much has happened - but I miss you so continually - without you I am forlorn - and you know it - and you are my own dear sweet bad Wam! - How can you leave me like this without your daily little letters! - They are delightful when they come - the last so charming - so dear to me - and so encouraging to the poor grinder - exiled with his big black mangle! - We are much to be envied though I know - for I look round and I see no others so happy as we two are in each other.

Arrangement in Gray: Portrait of the Painter

But back to that Peach Blossom painting.

Might the model be one of the Pettigrew sisters who were frequent models for the Whistlers? (Yes, another set of sisters for another day). Or maybe she’s another one of Beatrix’s sisters? Because I did promise three Birnie Philips sisters, and have yet to discuss Rosalind (1873-1958), the youngest of her parents’ ten offspring.

Rosalind, sixteen years younger than Beatrix, was also frequently drawn and painted by Whistler. This one is a little saturnine, but I rather like it:

The Black Hat: Miss Rosalind Birnie Philip

Only 22 when Beatrix lost a two year battle with cancer in 1896, Rosalind Birnie Philip became 62-year-old Whistler’s ward and later his executrix. She ‘acted as companion, model, secretary and kept house for JW and her mother until their deaths.’²

Sticking with his love for nicknames, Rosalind become the Major to Whistler’s the General, and inherited his entire estate when he died in 1903. She continued to collect his letters and prints before gifting her collection to the University of Glasgow. They have great information online, covering his paintings, etchings, and correspondence. Whistler’s letters to Rosalind, ‘are funny, furious personal, possessive, and businesslike’³ and both Rosalind and Ethel feature regularly through the years after Beatrix’s death, clearly part of each others’ lives and conversations on a daily basis.

Having read up on all this, I feel quite differently about The Sisters, and even more so, having come across the following two etchings of Beatrix during her illness:

Whistler’s The Siesta, 1896

The Balcony, 1896

The question of the lives of artists’ models as part of women’s history, isn’t something I’ve given too much thought to before, but it seems like a rich area for investigation. Girl With A Pearl Earring by Tracey Chevalier springs to mind as a book I loved which addresses artists and their models, and it’s also on this excellent list.

For anyone interested in thinking about this more, I’ll just add that the following two books are now firmly in my sights:

Dictionary of Artists’ Models, Joanna Banham, 2001 - this one is pricey. I think I’ll be going to visit it at a local university library.

Sargent’s Women, Four Lives Behind the Canvas, Donna M. Lacey

1. University of Glasgow, The Correspondence of James McNeil Whistler, Beatrix Whistler

2. University of Glasgow, The Correspondence of James McNeil Whistler, Rosalind Birnie Philip

3. University of Glasgow, The Correspondence of James McNeil Whistler, Rosalind Birnie Philip