Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle is an 1872-3 oil painting by James McNeill Whistler

James McNeill Whistler

James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American-born, British-based artist. Averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, he was a leading proponent of the credo "art for art's sake". His famous signature for his paintings was in the shape of a stylized butterfly possessing a long stinger...

. It depicts the Scottish social critic, philosopher and historian Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era.He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.Coming from a strict Calvinist family, Carlyle was...

 in a composition similar to that of Whistler's Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother

Whistler's Mother

Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, famous under its colloquial name Whistler's Mother, is an 1871 oil-on-canvas painting by American-born painter James McNeill Whistler. The painting is , displayed in a frame of Whistler's own design, and is now owned by the Musée d'Orsay in Paris....

, painted in 1871. It is now in the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum is a museum and art gallery in Glasgow, Scotland. The building houses one of Europe's great civic art collections...

 in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

, Scotland.

Background

By the time he sat for Whistler, Thomas Carlyle had lived in Chelsea, London

Chelsea, London

Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...

, for 47 years, and was one of its most recognized residents. He lived at 24 Cheyne Row, now Carlyle's House

Carlyle's House

Carlyle's House, in the district of Chelsea, in central London, England, was the home acquired by the historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle and his wife Jane Welsh Carlyle, after having lived at Craigenputtock in Dumfriesshire, Scotland. She was a prominent woman of letters, for nearly half a...

, which is preserved as a museum, very near to Lindsey House

Lindsey House

Lindsey House is a Grade II* listed villa in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is owned by the National Trust but tenanted and only open by special arrangement.-History:...

, now 96 Cheyne Walk

Cheyne Walk

Cheyne Walk , is a historic street in Chelsea, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It takes its name from William Lord Cheyne who owned the manor of Chelsea until 1712. Most of the houses were built in the early 18th century. Before the construction in the 19th century of the busy...

, where Whistler had his studio. Accompanied by a mutual friend, Carlyle visited Whistler's studio, viewed the painting of the artist's mother, and according to Whistler "He liked the simplicity of it, the old lady sitting with her hands in her lap, and said he would be painted. And he came one morning soon, and he sat down, and I had the canvas ready, and my brushes and palette, and Carlyle said, 'And now, mon, fire away!'"

Painting

There exist four preparatory studies in oil, and several drawings related to the finished painting. Several sketches in the Freer Gallery of Art

Freer Gallery of Art

The Freer Gallery of Art joins the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery to form the Smithsonian Institution's national museums of Asian art. The Freer contains art from East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, and ancient Egypt, as well as a significant collection of...

 suggest that while Whistler based the composition on the painting of his mother, he also considered variations: a chalk drawing shows Carlyle seated at an angle to the wall, a corner of the room shown at left, and without the coat that would be thrown over his lap in the painting. In the painting Whistler reverted to the planar composition of Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Artist's Mother, and included the robe that created a broader shape, reminiscent of the dress from the earlier picture. The canvas is slightly larger than that of the portrait of Mrs. Whistler, and is of a vertical format. Other differences include a subtle turn of the subject's head toward the viewer, and the shape caused by the bunching up of Carlyle's coat; these result in a mood of psychological disturbance that is quite different from the more static pose of his mother's portrait.

The composition with a profile figure painted in a range of dark tones is shared with the Portrait of the Artist's Mother, as is the over-riding concern with aesthetic arrangement, for all the two works' psychological penetration. Whistler painted the preeminent moral philosopher of his time as a nuanced study in shapes and colours.

Though Whistler had initially requested two or three sittings, Carlyle posed from 1872 into the summer of 1873. Several witnesses recounted Carlyle's stillness juxtaposed with Whistler's frenetic working movements, with the artist Hugh Cameron recalling "It was the funniest thing I ever saw. There was Carlyle sitting motionless, like a Heathen God or Oriental sage, and Whistler hopping about like a sparrow.

Years later Whistler wrote of Carlyle:

"He is a favorite of mine. I like the gentle sadness about him! -- perhaps he was even sensitive -- and even misunderstood -- who knows!"

Whistler's reference to sadness, and the sense of 'turbulence' in the characterization, may have reflected the remorse of Carlyle's later years, following the death of his wife Jane Welsh Carlyle

Jane Welsh Carlyle

Jane Welsh Carlyle was the wife of essayist Thomas Carlyle and has been cited as the reason for his fame and fortune. She was most notable as a letter-writer. In 1973, G.B...

 in 1866. While sitting for Whistler, Carlyle wrote in his journal "More and more dreary, barren, base, and ugly seem to me all the aspects of this poor diminishing quack world." In 1891 Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle became the artist's first painting to enter a public collection when it was purchased, at the insistence of the Glasgow Boys, by the City of Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

.