Ernest Delannoy, d. 1860/1870
Nationality: French
Date of Birth:
Identity:
Ernest Delannoy was an artist.
Life:
As an art student in 1858, Delannoy accompanied JW on a sketching tour of Alsace and the Rhineland, JW having been encouraged to etch from nature by his brother-in-law Francis Seymour Haden. After their money ran out in Cologne the two friends walked thirty-five miles to Aix-la-Chapelle, paying their way by drawing portraits, e.g. Prussian portraits m0282. JW returned with five or six plates and many drawings which resulted in Douze eaux-fortes d'après nature or the 'French Set', which was dedicated to Haden. Delannoy appears in many of JW's drawings, for example as the figure at rest in A la ferme de Maladrie m0230, A man reclining on a bed m0231 and Attendant que le linge sèche! Cologne m0278, images which capture the basic living conditions endured by the young aspiring artists. JW also frequently depicted Delannoy at work sketching, e.g. La Jeunesse à Coblentz m0269, An artist sketching m0270 and r.: Succès d'Erneste à Cologne; v.: Tracing of recto m0271. Delannoy also possibly appears in Barbier à Mayence m0257, r.: Four men on a boat; v.: Sailor m0262, Blanchissage à Cologne m0277, A man seated by a canal m0285.
Following Delannoy and JW's return to Paris the two men may have shared a studio (#00820). In Paris, possibly in August 1859, JW gave Delannoy a gift of a life-size self-portrait in oil, Portrait of Whistler with Hat y023 (#08041). They remained in contact throughout the early 1860s (#08043). In November 1862 Henri Fantin-Latour reported to JW that Delannoy was in Rouen, his mother having just died (#01076). However, by the late 1860s Delannoy and JW saw each other little (#01085). In January 1869 JW wrote to Fantin-Latour, 'I never see Ernest nor Emile Aubert they are nowhere to be found' (#01087). In a letter by JW dating from 1872, he specifically mentioned Delannoy's premature death (#08041).
Bibliography:
Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980; MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995.