Circle of James McNeill Whistler, American / British 1834-1903- Femme au chapeau; oil on canvas, 81.3 x 45.7 cm. Provenance: Private Collection (by descent). Exhibited: London, Colnaghi & The Clarendon Gallery, 'Society Portraits 1850-1939', 1985...

Circle of James McNeill Whistler, American / British 1834-1903- Femme au chapeau; oil on canvas, 81.3 x 45.7 cm. Provenance: Private Collection (by descent). Exhibited: London, Colnaghi & The Clarendon Gallery, 'Society Portraits 1850-1939', 1985, no.58 (erroneously as by Jacques-Emile Blanche). Literature: Exhibition catalogue, 'Society Portraits 1850-1939', London, Colnaghi & The Clarendon Gallery, 1985, p.132-133, no.58, illustrated (erroneously as by Jacques-Emile Blanche). Note: The present work is entirely Whistlerian and has so far evaded a firm attribution. Suggestions of Theodore Roussel (1847-1926), Sidney Starr (1857-1925), and Beatrice Whistler (1857-1896) have been made, and it has been observed that the glamorous subject bears similarities in appearance to Whistler’s mistress Maud Franklin (1857-1939), who took up with William Stott of Oldham (1857-1900).