November 20th - 22nd, 1999 Auction
Helleu, Paul - César (French 1859-1927)
"Portrait of James McNeill Whistler (Study)"
pencil on paper, signed lower right.
20" x 15"
circa 1897.
Estimate......... $15,000-$20,000.Provenance: Mortimer Menpes* Collection whose mark appears on verso, Frederick Keppel Co. New York to a Midwest Collection.
It would seem that this is the original pencil study from which the dry point etching by Helleu of Whistler was made. While Whistler was posing in the Studio of the artist Boldini for the oil portrait which now hangs in the Brooklyn Musuem, Helleu visited the studio and executed the offered lot. Paul César Helleu was a popular and fashionable portraitist of the time, and a friend of both Whistler and Boldini. It is known that he executed at least two bust-length dry points of Whistler during Boldini’s painting session. An impression of Helleu’s portrait of Whistler exists with the inscribed dale “12 mai, 1897,” giving a good indication of when the drawing was executed. For Helleu’s dry point modeled after this image see: (Smithsonian Press, In Pursuit of the Butterfly – Portraits of James McNeill Whistler, page 142, figure 5:20).
*Mortimer L. Menpes (British 1859-1938) was studying with Sir Edward John Poynter (1836-1919) at the South Kensington School where he met Whistler at the Fine Arts Society Galleries during the winter of 1880-1881. Menpes instantly idolized Whistler, who was working on the printing of the first Venetian plates at that time: “From that hour, I was almost a slave in his service, ready and only too anxious to help, no matter in how small a way. I took off my coat there and then, and began to grind up ink for the Master” Menpes was among the first of Whistler’s followers in London in the decade following his return from Venice. Menpes became his pupil and worked with Whistler for most of the 1880s, often accompanying him around London and on other travels. So taken was Menpes by Whistler that he wrote the book "Whistler As I Knew Him," The MacMillan Co., 1904.
Helleu, Paul - César (French 1859-1927)
"Portraits of James McNeill Whistler (Study)"
charcoal and pencil on paper,
signed lower right "Helleu". 20" x 15" circa 1897.
Estimate.......$15,000-$20,000.
Provenance: Same Midwest Collection as previous lot.
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