UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

The Corresponence of James McNeil Whistler

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Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, 1873-1958

Nationality: American
Date of Birth: 1873
Place of Birth:
Date of Death: 1958
Place of Death:

Identity:

Edith Stuyvesant Vanderbilt, née Dresser, married George Washington Vanderbilt in Paris in 1898. After his death in 1914, she married Senator P. G. Gerry of Providence, R.I.

Life:

In 1898 George Vanderbilt commissioned from JW a portrait of Edith, Ivoire et or: Portrait de Madame Vanderbilt (YMSM 515). She sat for him in Paris in June 1899. In January 1901, JW proposed to return Vanderbilt's cheque. However, in February 1901 Vanderbilt wrote to JW that his wife was ready to sit for him again and the portrait was finished and delivered by May 1902. At Vanderbilt's death in 1914 the work was bequeathed to Edith, along with Nocturne: Battersea (YMSM 120), Gold and Brown (YMSM 462), Portrait of George W. Vanderbilt (YMSM 481).

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.