Identity:

James Waddell was a chartered accountant in the firm of J. Waddell and Co.

Life:

On 7 May 1879 Whistler was declared bankrupt and Waddell was appointed Receiver by the London Bankruptcy Court. Waddell notified Whistler that any scratched or destroyed stretchers were to be left out of the bankcruptcy proceedings and so Whistler defaced a number of his paintings so that they would not fall into the hands of his creditors, e.g. The Blue Girl: Maud Franklin (YMSM 112). Waddell was unable to locate some paintings; Whistler suspected C. A. Howell and F. R. Leyland of conspiring to remove several from the White House, including The Three Girls (YMSM 88), The Blue Girl: Portrait of Connie Gilchrist (YMSM 207), The Loves of the Lobsters (YMSM 209) and Mount Ararat (YMSM 210). In Venice Whistler was anxious to state that a few paintings, including Pink and Grey: Three Figures (YMSM 89), had been executed after the settlement of his affairs and therefore should not be taken. He wanted his brother William to identify these works to Waddell.

Bibliography:

UK census 1881 from http://www.familysearch.org (accessed 2004); Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980.