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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/james-abbott-mcneill-whistler-598" aria-label="More by James Abbott McNeill Whistler" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">James Abbott McNeill Whistler</a>
Harmony in Grey and Green Miss Cicely Alexander
Bequeathed by W.C. Alexander 1932
actions: postures and motions
Alexander, Cicely
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clothing and personal items
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<p>Cicely Alexander, daughter of a London banker, was eight years old when Whistler painted this portrait. The artist exerted considerable control over the picture, posing the girl in the attitude of Manet’s <i>Lola de Valence</i> 1862, and designing her dress in detail.</p><p>The portrait demanded over 70 sittings each lasting several hours. Cicely recalled: ‘I used to get very tired and cross, and often finished the day in tears.’ Not surprisingly, the picture was criticised for its departure from the more informal formats usually adopted for child portraiture. One critic called it ‘a disagreeable presentation of a disagreeable young lady’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, February 2010</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
11 October 2002 – 5 January 2003
2003-01-05
2002-10-11
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2002-10-11
Whistler Sargent and Steer - Frist
Tate partnerships & programmes
24 February 2003 – 25 May 2003
2003-05-25
24 February 2003 – 25 May 2003
2003-05-25
2003-02-24
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, USA)
http://www.metmuseum.org
2003-02-24
Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting
Loan-out
22 April 2003 – 13 July 2003
2003-07-13
22 April 2003 – 13 July 2003
2003-07-13
2003-04-22
Frick Collection (New York, USA)
http://www.frick.org
2003-04-22
Whistler, Women and Fashion
Loan-out
6 October 2005 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
6 October 2005 – 15 January 2006
2006-01-15
2005-10-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
18 February 2006 – 14 May 2006
2006-05-14
2006-02-18
Phillips Collection (Washington, USA)
2005-10-06
Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris 1870-1910
Exhibition
6 December 2006 – 4 June 2007
2007-06-04
6 December 2006 – 15 February 2007
2007-02-15
2006-12-06
State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow, Russia)
State Russian Museum (St Petersburg, Russia)
http://www.rusmuseum.ru
2006-12-06
Whistler: Russian Suite
Loan-out
19 July 2008 – 1 February 2009
2009-02-01
19 July 2008 – 12 October 2008
2008-10-12
2008-07-19
Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh, UK)
http://www.royalscottishacademy.org
31 October 2008 – 1 February 2009
2009-02-01
2008-10-31
Glasgow Museums and Galleries (Glasgow, UK)
2008-07-19
Impressionism and Scotland
Loan-out
1 May 2009 – 2 December 2010
2010-12-02
1 May 2009 – 2 December 2010
2010-12-02
2009-05-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2009-05-01
James Abbott McNeill Whistler
Collection based display
2 April 2011 – 17 June 2012
2012-06-17
12 September 2011 – 15 January 2012
2012-01-15
2011-09-12
Musée d’Orsay (Paris, France)
18 February 2012 – 17 June 2012
2012-06-17
2012-02-18
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, de Young Museum (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.famsf.org
2011-04-02
The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement 1860-1900
Loan-out
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
5 November 2012 – 20 July 2014
2014-07-20
2012-11-05
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2012-11-05
Gallery 9
Collection based display
24 October 2014 – 25 March 2015
2015-03-25
25 February 2015 – 25 March 2015
2015-03-25
2015-02-25
National Museum Warsaw (Warsaw, Poland)
2014-10-24
Olga Boznanska and her Artistic Friendships: Between Krakow, Munich and Paris
Loan-out
2 July 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
2 July 2016 – 4 September 2016
2016-09-04
2016-07-02
Grimaldi Forum (Monaco, Monaco)
30 September 2016 – 8 January 2017
2017-01-08
2016-09-30
Guggenheim Museum (Bilbao, Spain)
2016-07-02
Francis Bacon, Monaco et la French Culture
Loan-out
8 May 2023 – 5 May 2025
2025-05-05
31 October 2022
2022-10-31
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2023-05-08
Gallery 6
Collection based display
Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander
support: 1902 × 978 mm
frame: 2215 × 1300 × 100 mm
Bequeathed by W.C. Alexander 1932
<div class="text">
<p>Cicely Alexander was the daughter of W.C. Alexander, a successful London banker. She was eight years old when Whistler painted this portrait. Alexander had a collection of Japanese lacquerwork and blue and white china, and Whistler adds a touch of Japonisme to the portrait through the gold-edged black dado and wall divider, and the delicate daisies and butterflies. Whistler also painted Cicely’s older sister, Agnes Mary (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/whistler-miss-agnes-mary-alexander-n05964" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N05964</span></a>), and had planned to paint her first, but was suddenly inspired to paint the younger girl in the dress and pose of Manet’s <i>Lola de Valence</i> (1862, Musée d’Orsay). He gave strict instructions as to how Cicely should be clothed, designing the dress in detail and even giving directions as to where suitable fine Indian muslin material could be found. Even the black-and-white carpet on which she stands was made to order by Eliza and Alice Fay Greaves, the sisters of the artist Walter Greaves (1846–1930). The finished work not only pays tribute to Manet but, through its loose brushwork and tonal handling of paint, also draws on the work of Velasquez, who had portrayed members of the Spanish court in similar poses and colouring.</p>
<p>The picture is, as the title proposes, a harmony in grey and green: Cicely poses against a grey wall in a grey-toned dress on grey matting. The pale green of the long feather in her grey hat is picked up in the bows of her black pumps and the sash of her dress. Having controlled so precisely the colouring of his subject, Whistler was determined to match it with his paints, and demanded over seventy sittings from the little girl, each lasting several hours. She later recalled the torture to which she was subjected:</p>
<p class="cttext">
</p><blockquote>I’m afraid I rather considered that I was a victim all through the sittings, or rather standings, for he never let me change my position, and I believe I sometimes used to stand for hours at a time. I know I used to get very tired and cross, and often finished the day in tears.<br/>(Pennell, pp.173-4.)</blockquote>
<p>One of the most compelling aspects of the picture is the austere design, which joins with the precious colouring to create an exquisitely delicate sense of fragile beauty. However, when the picture was first exhibited at the Pall Mall Gallery in 1874, the critics called it ‘a disagreeable presentment of a disagreeable young lady’ and ‘an arrangement of Silver and bile’ (quoted in Dorment and MacDonald, p.147).</p>
<p>
<b>Further reading</b>
<br/>Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, <i>The Life of James McNeill Whistler</i>, vol.1, London and Philadelphia 1908, pp.173–4.<br/>Margaret F. MacDonald, <i>James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours, A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, New Haven and London, 1994, pp.503–5.<br/>Richard Dorment and Margaret F. MacDonald, <i>James McNeill Whistler</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1994, no.62, pp.146–7, reproduced p.147, in colour.</p>
<p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
</div>

Summary
2022-03-24T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Cicely Alexander, daughter of a London banker, was eight years old when Whistler painted this portrait.  The artist exerted considerable control over the picture, posing the girl in the attitude of Manet’s <i>Lola de Valence</i> 1862, and designing her dress in detail.
<br/>
<br/>The portrait demanded over 70 sittings each lasting several hours.  Cicely recalled: ‘I used to get very tired and cross, and often finished the day in tears.’  Not surprisingly, the picture was criticised for its departure from the more informal formats usually adopted for child portraiture.  One critic called it ‘a disagreeable presentation of a disagreeable young lady’.
<br/></p>

Display caption
2010-02-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: postures and motions Alexander, Cicely animals: insects & lower animals architecture butterfly children clothing and personal items domestic dress flower girl hat individuals: female interiors Japanese living room named individuals objects people periods and styles plants and flowers portraits sash standing