Mr. Whistler's gallery: the art of displaying art

(8) For the ceiling and blinds, see "Flesh Colour and Grey," Queen, May 31, 1884; and E. W. Godwin, "To Art Students: Letter No. 9," British Architect and Northern Engineer, vol. 22 (July 11, 1884), p. 13. For the flooring, see London Globe and Traveller, May 20, 1884; Manchester Guardian, May 20, 1884; Bell's Life in London, May 24, 1884; "Flesh Colour and Grey," Queen, May 31, 1884; and "Whistler's Criticism on the Art of Painting," Nation, June 26, 1884, p. 549. For the azaleas, see Globe and Traveller, May 20, 1884. For the chairs, see "Mr. Whistler's Gallery," London Evening Standard, May 20, 1884. For the fireplace hanging, see ibid.; "Whistles," Topical Times, May 24, 1884; and "Flesh Colour and Grey," Queen, May 31, 1884. (Except where full citations are given, all exhibition reviews cited in this article are taken from the copies in Whistler's press-cutting books in the Whistler archive at the department of special collections, Glasgow University Library and on microfilm at the Archives of American Art, Washington, D.C. Volume and page numbers are given in the "List of Contemporary Exhibition Reviews Cited" in Myers, Mr. Whistler's Gallery, p. 100.)

(9) For the attendant, see Queen, May 31, 1884. Mortimer Menpes, Whistler as I Knew Him (Adam and Charles Black, London, 1904), p. 121, describes Whistler signing the installation with his butterfly monogram.

(10) On the deleterious effects of gaslight, see "Venice Pastels," London Daily Telegraph, February 1, 1881.

(11) "Flesh Colour and Grey," Queen, May 31, 1884; and "Whistles," Topical Times, May 24, 1884. See also, World, May 21, 1884; Unidentified press cutting (perhaps Bell's Life), May 22, 1884; Whitehall Review, May 23, 1884; and "Causerie," Court Circular and Court News, May 24, 1884. For Constance Mary Lloyd and her marriage, see Richard Ellmann, Oscar Wilde (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1988), p. 249.

(12) Flesh Colour and Grey," Queen, May 31, 1884.

(13) Topical Times, May 24, 1884.

(14) The probable count is one large oil painting, two medium-sized oil paintings, thirty-two small oil paintings, and thirty-two works on paper (twenty-nine watercolors and three pastels).

(15) "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Evening Standard, May 19, 1884.

(16) Kensington [London] News, May 29, 1884; and [Walter Dowdeswell], "Mr. Whistler and his Art," Artist and Journal of Home Culture, vol. 5 (June 1, 1884), p. 164. That Charles William Dowdeswell was the unnamed author of this review was previously noted in Bell, "Fact and Fiction," p. 174.

(17) Godwin, "To Art Students," p. 13.

(18) Whistler to Charles William Dowdeswell, early May 1884 (vol. 1, doc. 59, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection. Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.). The On-line Centenary edition of Whistler's correspondence from public and private collections is being published on the Internet by the Centre for Whistler Studies, University of Glasgow. The Web site address for this ongoing project is: www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence.