Portraits, Pastels, Prints: Whistler in The Frick Collection
June 2 through August 23, 2009
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James McNeill Whistler (1834–1903), Arrangement in Black and Gold: Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac,
1891–92, oil on canvas, The Frick Collection |
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Arrangement in Black and Gold:
Comte Robert de Montesquiou-Fezensac
This “arrangement in black” was executed fifteen years after the Portrait of Miss Rosa Corder. The Comte de
Montesquiou, a Symbolist poet and aristocratic dandy,
was a model for Baron de Charlus in Proust’s novel À la recherche du temps perdu.
Although it required
more than one hundred sittings, the portrait exhibits an
especially rapid handling of paint. The artist conveys the
softness of the chinchilla cloak with thin veils of paint. He
deftly renders Montesquiou’s distinctive facial features with bold, loose strokes that contrast with the more
delicate modeling of the faces in the other portraits on display.
The gold named in the picture’s title may refer
to the gilded frame, which was placed on the canvas
early in the painting process.
See the video podcast by Curator Emeritus Edgar Munhall.
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