James McNeill Whistler (Lowell, Massachusetts, 1834 - 1903, London, England)
The Little Note in Yellow and Gold, 1886
Chalk and pastel on brown paper, 27 x 14 cm (10 5/8 x 5 1/2 in.)
Little Note in Yellow and Gold is a vertical, rectangular chalk and pastel drawing. This delicate full-length portrait depicts Isabella Stewart Gardner. Her body faces slightly to our right as she gazes directly at the viewer with a slight smile on her face and her chin tilted slightly upward. She is dressed in a long white gown. Although loosely drawn, her dress appears to have a simple bodice with a skirt that is gathered at the side that falls to a train in the back and ruffles in the front. The puffy sleeves end at her elbows. A yellow shawl is held at her side in her right hand and in the crook of her left elbow.
Veronese Room
Commentary
This small pastel is a portrait of Isabella Stewart Gardner. Gardner and James McNeill Whistler enjoyed a long relationship that began as patron and artist, but gradually grew into a warm friendship. Author Henry James introduced the two in 1879, while the Gardners were in London with their three nephews. Isabella sat for this portrait in 1886 and over the next several years, acquired more of his works. Four of these are on display in the Veronese Room. As a symbol of their friendship, Whistler gave Gardner his bamboo walking stick which she displayed in the Sargent / Whistler Case in the Long Gallery.