1. Glazer, Jacobson, McCarthy, Roeder, wall label, 2019:
An artist's studio in the late nineteenth century was regarded as a sanctuary of creativity and mystery. Whistler played on the appeal of the studio by welcoming patrons and collectors into his work space and providing a tantalizing peek behind the scenes. In Milly Finch, a model wearing a lavender dress poses provocatively on a red chaise lounge. In Note in Pink and Purple, Milly sits demurely with her hand in her lap. The identical dress, chaise, table, and drapery swag are present in both works, yet the mood is quite different. This illustrates how Whistler used his studio, with its theatrical trappings and bohemian intrigue, much like a performance space.
2. Susan Hobbs, 1978:
Occasionally Whistler's watercolor technique becomes very rich in color tonality and rather sketch-like in its application to the paper. This work is such an example; it contrasts markedly with the more fluid rendering of Ranelagh Gardens.
1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Pg. 200
This sketch offers an intimate glimpse of one of Whistler's studios. The studio interior was a subject frequently chosen by French, English, and American artists in Whistler's day. Familiar furnishings include the gaudy rococo revival couch, the square table, now serving as a stool, and the folding table. Stacks of canvases and swaths of drapery make up the background. Whistler is reputed to have said "Mauve? Mauve is just pink trying to be purple." Nonetheless, he has skillfully orchestrated pink and purple notes into a rich mauve chord.
2. Globe, May 20, 1884
"Some even of the slightest sketches have, in an eminent degree, the charm of colour and suggestiveness. The water-colour, 'Violet and Red,' for instance, in which the forms of two ladies seated at a table are vaguely indicated."
3. "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Graphic, May 24, 1884
"Mr. Whistler['s]...recent studies and sketches...are varied in subject, and differ from each other very widely in merit. The majority are of the slightest kind, mere memoranda of effects of light and colour, such as other artists retain in their studios for reference. A few of these, vague as they are, and without any definition of form, are charming by reason of their subtle beauty of colour and suggestiveness. 'The Nouvelette,' in which the figure of a lady reading in bed is faintly indicated, the figure of a girl seen through a doorway 'Shelling Peas' [no. 20], and the interior called 'Violet and Red' [no. 6 or no. 10], are among the best of these very slight watercolour sketches."
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