In addition to large-scale portraits, James McNeill Whistler created small-scale likenesses, often on wood panel, as in this painting of a young sitter. A well-known beauty, Olga Caracciolo lived in Dieppe, France, likely where this work was executed, and later married the photographer Adolf de Meyer. Rather than a swift, abbreviated study for a larger composition, Whistler considered a work such as this to be a satisfying aesthetic whole. Indeed, small paintings serve as invitations for an intimate viewing experience and contemplation of the artist’s harmonies of color and form.
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Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, “Study of a Girl’s Head and Shoulders,” The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler: A Catalogue Raisonné, University of Glasgow, accessed June 3, 2020, https://whistlerpaintings.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/display/?mid=y486 (ill.).
Jay A. Clarke and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. 36 (ill.), http://artic.edu/digitalwhistler.
London, International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers, The New Gallery, Regent Street, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late James McNeill Whistler, Feb. 22-Apr. 15, 1905, cat. 58, as Study of a Girl’s Head and Shoulders.
Art Institute of Chicago, Summer Exhibitions, July 20–Oct. 29, 1939, cat. 5.
Baroness Olga de Meyer, by 1905 [lent to London 1905]. Annie Swan Coburn (Mrs. Lewis Larned, 1856–1932), Chicago, by 1932; bequeathed to her friend Walter Stanton Brewster (1872–1954), Chicago, 1932 [Last Will and Testament and Letters Testamentary of Annie S. Coburn, Dated August 9, 1932, Article 3 (p), as Girl’s Head]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.
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