UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

Florence Leyland

Impression: Freer Gallery of Art
Freer Gallery of Art
(1898.341)
Number: 136
Date: 1874
Medium: drypoint
Size: 215 x 140 mm
Signed: butterfly at lower right
Inscribed: ' "I am Flo" ' at right (6)
Set/Publication: 'Cancelled Plates', 1879
No. of States: 11
Known impressions: 43
Catalogues: K.110; M.109; T.79; W.96
Impressions taken from this plate  (43)

KEYWORD

clothing, dress, fashion, full-length, game, girl standing, hoop, portrait.

TITLE

Variations on the title are as follows:


'Florence Leyland ' (1870s, Whistler). 2
'Portrait' (1874, Pall Mall). 3
'Portrait of Miss Florence' (1874, James Anderson Rose (1819-1890)). 4
'Miss Florence Leyland' (1874, Ralph Thomas, Jr (1840-1876)). 5
'Flos' (1877, Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890)). 6
'Flo' (1877, Whistler). 7
Florence Leyland' (1886, Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921)). 8


'Florence Leyland' is the sitter's name; it is the generally accepted title and is consistent with the portraits of her siblings.

2: Written on Graphic with a link to impression #K1100301.

3: London Pall Mall 1874 (cat. no. 35).

4: Liverpool 1874 (cat. no. 481).

5: Thomas 1874 (cat. no. 79).

6: Howell to Whistler, [6-15 November 1877], GUW #02178.

7: 22 October [1877], GUW #12737.

8: Wedmore 1886 A (cat. no. 96).


DESCRIPTION

A young girl with long wavy hair, cut in a fringe across her forehead, stands facing front, with her right foot advanced. She wears a high-necked, long-sleeved dress with a narrow frill down the centre front, and a deeper frill round the hem, which falls just below her knee (she may be wearing a pinafore over a dress, but this is not entirely clear). She is holding a hoop with her right hand. Shadows fall behind and to the left of her.

SITTER

Comparative image
Florence Leyland seated [m0525], 1873/1875, pastel.
The Hunterian, GLAHA 46060.

Florence Leyland (1859-1921). She posed for numerous pastels including Portrait of Miss Florence Leyland [m0509], Florence Leyland in a green and orange dress [m0523], Florence Leyland in a purple dress [m0524], Florence Leyland seated [m0525] and Head of Florence Leyland [m0526]. 9 Of these, the study reproduced below is closest in composition.

Comparative image
Florence Leyland in a purple dress [m0524], ca 1873, pastel.
The Hunterian, GLAHA 46059.

9: The first is in a private collection; the others in the Hunterian.