UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler
Home > On-line Edition > Biography

Constance MacDonald Gilchrist, 1865-1946

Nationality: English
Date of Birth: 1865.01.23
Place of Birth: Agartown, Surrey
Date of Death: 1946
Place of Death:

Identity:

Connie's parents were Matilda Maria Gilchrist, née Potter, and David G., engine smith, St Pancras district. She married Edmond Walter Fitz-Maurice, seventh Earl of Orkney.

Life:

She joined the company of the Gaiety Theatre at the age of 12 as a skipping rope dancer. A highly successful career as dancer and actress in comedy and vaudeville ended in 1892 when she married the seventh Earl of Orkney, and retired to Leighton Buzzard.

From the age of six she posed regularly for Frederick Leighton, culminating as a whole procession of dancing girls in his Daphnephoria, which was shown at the Royal Academy in 1876 (Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight).

She posed to Whistler for two oil paintings, Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist (YMSM 190) and The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist (YMSM 207). See also r.: The Blue Girl; v.: Curtain (M.521) r.: Nellie Farren; v.: Demon (M.665) r.: Two sketches of Nellie Farren; v.: Studies of two actors or actresses, one playing a banjo (M.667) Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist' (M.709) Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist' (M.710) Sketch of 'Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist' (M.711) Connie Gilchrist (M.712) Study for 'The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland' (M.717) Study of Maud Waller for 'Scherzo in Blue: The Blue Girl' (M.846) Portrait sketch (M.930) The Dancer (No.1) (M.1624) Harmony in Yellow and Gold: The Gold Girl - Connie Gilchrist (YMSM 190) The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist (YMSM 207).

Bibliography:

George R. Sims, My Life. Sixty Years' Recollections of Bhemian London, London, 1917, p. 21; L. and R.Ormond, Lord Leighton, New Haven and London, 1975, p. 133; 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.