UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Home > The Catalogue > Biography

Return to previous page

Lillie Pamington, fl. 1880-1898

Nationality: British
Date of Birth:

Identity:

Lillie Pamington was an artists' model.

Life:

Red-haired Lillie Pamington was a child model discovered by JW, who in his later years would take a cab through the poorer streets of London looking for suitable models. She arrived at JW's studio with her mother and her hair 'frizzed and curled [...] in a way that he considered frightful'. He had to explain that he wanted to paint her as he had originally found her. Very little is known about her life, but she became one of JW's favourite models. There are about ten known portraits of her. In the late 1890s JW sent Lillie to his dentist, asking him to stop her pain 'at once by your magic', writing: 'I depend upon this pretty child - little Lillie Pamington- "The Golden Lillie" - for the making of my pictures' (#09072).

Bibliography:

Shaw, Edith, and Margaret F. MacInnes, 'Four Years with Whistler', Apollo, vol. 87, March 1968, pp. 198-201; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980.