UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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

Frederick H. Grau, ??-1894/1895

Nationality: English?
Date of Birth:
Place of Birth:
Date of Death: 1894/1895
Place of Death:

Identity:

F. H. Grau was a picture framer.

Life:

Grau was JW's frame maker in London in the 1890s. In November 1890 JW wrote to Walford Graham Robertson, 'send for Grau and tell him to make you at once one of my beautiful new frames for the Valparaiso [Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green: Valparaiso (YMSM 73)] - Of exactly the same gold as that he has used for me lately - The old frame is altogether to [sic] rickety' (#09403). Grau was also responsible for the framing of Arrangement in Black: Girl Reading (YMSM 223) in 1891. In 1892 JW wrote to E. G. Kennedy: 'You ought to have new frames made at once for The Westminster Bridge [The Last of Old Westminster (YMSM 39)] and the Thames picture [Battersea Reach (YMSM 45)] - both of which must be in hideous old things - My frame maker is Mr. Grau, 570, Fulham Road... Tell him that the gold must be the pale yellow soft gold like the gilding of my Mother's [Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother (YMSM 101)] frame' (#09685).

In 1892 JW also suggested ordering a new frame for Symphony in White, No. 2: The Little White Girl (YMSM 52) from Grau as its original frame was weak. In this year he also requested that Sea and Rain (YMSM 65) be reglazed by Grau, and that Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander (YMSM 129) be scraped and regilded (#05695). Both Brun et or: De race (YMSM 511) and The Boy in a Cloak (YMSM 512) bear the label of Grau. Grau not only framed JW's oils but his watercolours too, for example Grey and Silver - North Sea (M.937), Grey and pearl - Bank Holiday Banners (M.954), Blue and Silver (M.1044) and Mother and Child - The Pearl (M.1290).

JW also involved him in making palettes (Palette (M.1323)) and in the packaging of paintings and plates (#06308).

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.