
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00000601Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown: Portrait of Arthur Jerome Eddy
Inscriptions
Signed, recto, middle right: [butterfly monogram] Signed and dated, canvas verso, upper right: "Arrangement in / Flesh Colour & Brown, / Portrait of / Arthur J. Eddy." / Of Chicago. / [butterfly monogram] / Painted in my Studio in / Paris. / October. 1894. / J. McNeill Whistler.
Provenance
Commissioned by Arthur Jerome Eddy (1859–1920), Chicago, 1894; by descent to his wife, Lucy “Lulu” Crapo Orrell Eddy (1863–1931), and son, Jerome Orrell Eddy (1891–1951), Chicago, 1920; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1931.
Exhibition history
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Seventy-Third Annual Exhibition, Jan. 25–Mar. 5, 1904, cat. 31, as An Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown. Boston, Copley Hall, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler: Oil Paintings, Watercolors, Pastels, and Drawings, Feb. 1904, cat. 18, as An Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown (organized by the Copley Society). Art Institute of Chicago, Twentieth Annual Exhibition of Oil Paintings and Sculpture by American Artists, Oct. 22–Dec. 1, 1907, cat. 435, as Portrait of a Gentleman. The Arts Club of Chicago, "Loan Portrait” Exhibition, Dec. 7–21, 1918, cat. 36, as Mr. Arthur J. Eddy. Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of Paintings from the Collection of the Late Arthur Jerome Eddy, Sept. 19–Oct. 22, 1922, cat. 66, as Arthur J. Eddy (Portrait). Art Institute of Chicago, Exhibition of the Arthur Jerome Eddy Collection of Modern Paintings and Sculpture, Dec. 22, 1931–Jan. 17, 1932, cat 19 (ill.), as Portrait of Arthur Jerome Eddy. Art Institute of Chicago, Sargent, Whistler and Mary Cassatt, Jan. 14–Feb. 25, 1954, cat. 119 (ill.), as Arthur Jerome Eddy; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mar. 25–May 23, 1954. Art Institute of Chicago, Two Centuries of American Art, 1750-1950, Oct. 1, 1959–Jan. 10, 1960, no cat. [downloadable checklist available]. Art Institute of Chicago, James McNeill Whistler, Jan. 13–Feb. 25, 1968, cat. 41, as Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown: Portrait of Arthur J. Eddy (Arthur Jerome Eddy); Utica, NY, Munson-Williams Proctor Institute, Mar. 17–Apr. 28, 1968. Art Institute of Chicago, Whistler: Prints and Paintings, May–Aug. 31, 1979, no cat. Atlanta, High Museum of Art, After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, Nov. 15, 2003–Feb. 8, 2004, cat. 10 (ill.); Detroit Institute of Art, Mar. 6–May 30, 2004 (Detroit only). Art Institute of Chicago, Whistler's Mother: An American Icon Returns to Chicago, Mar. 4–May 21, 2017, no cat. Art Institute of Chicago, John Singer Sargent and Chicago’s Gilded Age, July 1–Sept. 30, 2018, cat. 91.
Publications
H. Monroe, “Chicago Letter,” The Critic: A Weekly Review of Literature and the Arts 22, no. 671 (Dec. 29, 1894): 450. “Days with Whistler in His Den, Arthur J. Eddy Talks of the Artist to the Antiquarians,” The Chicago Tribune, Mar. 26, 1895, 9. “Chicago’s Only ‘Whistler,’” The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 14, 1902, 58. “Pennsylvania Art Show: Academy Exhibit Includes Many Whistler Canvases,” The New York Times, January 24, 1904, 5, as An Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown. Copley Society, Loan Collection [of] Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (Copley Society, 1904), 4, cat. 18, as An Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown. Frederick W. Coburn, “The Whistler Memorial Exhibition,” Brush and Pencil 13, no. 6 (Mar. 1904): 438. Elisabeth Luther Cary, The Works of James McNeill Whistler (Moffat, Yard and Company, 1907), 157, no. 18, as An Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown. E. R. Pennell and J. Pennell, The Whistler Journal (J. B. Lippincott Company, 1921), viii, opposite 240 (ill.), as Arthur J. Eddy. “A Chicago Gift,” The Arts Digest (Dec. 15, 1931): 10 (ill.), as Arthur J. Eddy and Portrait of Arthur Jerome Eddy. Carter H. Harrison, “Big Business Lawyer of Rebel Taste,” Chicago ILL Post, Dec. 29, 1931. “Twenty Modern Paintings Given to Chicago Museums,” Detroit Michigan News, Dec. 27, 1931. Art Institute of Chicago, Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago: Report for the Year 1931 (1931): 17 (ill.), 37, as Arthur Jerome Eddy. “Museum Accessions,” The American Magazine of Art 24, no. 2 (Feb. 1932): 90, 144 (ill.), as Arthur J. Eddy. Harriet Monroe, A Poet’s Life: Seventy Years in a Changing World (MacMillan, 1938), 216–17. Isabel Stevenson Monro and Kate M. Monro, Index to Reproductions of American Paintings: A Guide to Pictures Occurring in More than Eight Hundred Books (H. W. Wilson, 1948), 701, as Arthur J. Eddy. Charles Fabens Kelley, “Chicago: Record Years,” Art News 51 (Summer 1952): 63 (ill.), 108. Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), 484, as Arthur Jerome Eddy. Denys Sutton, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler (London: Country Life Limited, 1963), 128. Denys Sutton, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolours (London: Phaidon Press, 1966), 196–97, ill. pl. 122. Frederick A. Sweet, “Great Chicago Collectors,” Apollo 84, no. 55 (Sept. 1966): 196 (ill. fig. 19), 197, as Arthur Jerome Eddy. David Hanks, “American Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Part II: The Nineteenth Century,” The Magazine Antiques (Nov. 1973): 903 (ill.), as Portrait of Arthur J. Eddy. John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1970; reprint ed., London: Thames & Hudson, 1977), 269 (ill.), as Arthur Jerome Eddy. Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret MacDonald, and Robin Spencer, with the assistance of Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler (Yale University Press, 1980), 189, cat. 425, xi, ill. pl. 262, as Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Brown: Portrait of A. J. Eddy. Paul Kruty, “Arthur Jerome Eddy and His Collection: Prelude and Postscript to the Armory Show,” Arts Magazine (Feb. 1987): 41, ill. fig. 2, as Portrait of Arthur Jerome Eddy. Milo M. Naeve, “The Edwardian Era and Patrons of American Art at The Art Institute of Chicago: The Birth of a Tradition,” America’s International Exposition of Fine Arts and Antiques (The Lakeside Group, 1988), 20 (ill., fig 1), 21–22, as An Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown: Arthur Jerome Eddy. Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown, and Company, 1988), 103 (ill.), as An Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown (Arthur Jerome Eddy). Robin Spencer, Whistler (London: Studio Editions, 1990), 132 (ill. opposite page), as Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Brown: Portrait of Arthur J. Eddy. Judith A. Barter, Kimberly Rhodes, and Seth A. Thayer, with contributions by Andrew Walker, American Arts at The Art Institute of Chicago: From Colonial Times to World War I (Art Institute of Chicago, 1998), 29, 302–4, cat. 154 (ill.). Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings in the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago and New Haven: The Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2009), 94 (ill.). Judith A. Barter, et al., The Age of American Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago and New Haven: Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2011), 45. Grischka Petri, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler (Hildesheim: Georg Olms Verlag, 2011), 528–29 (ill. fig. 178), as Arrangement in Flesh Color and Brown: Portrait of Arthur J. Eddy. Art Institute of Chicago, Master Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago and New Haven: Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2013), 94 (ill.). Daniel E. Sutherland, Whistler: A Life for Art’s Sake (Yale University Press, 2014), 279. Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago: Highlights of the Collection, (Chicago and New Haven: Art Institute of Chicago and Yale University Press, 2017), 63 (ill.). Annelise K. Madsen, et al., John Singer Sargent and Chicago's Gilded Age, exh. cat. (Art Institute of Chicago, 2018), 88–89, 209, cat. 91, fig. 57 (ill.). Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, "Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Brown: Portrait of Arthur J. Eddy," The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler: A Catalogue Raisonné, University of Glasgow, accessed June 3, 2020, https://whistlerpaintings.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/display/?mid=y425, as Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Brown: Portrait of Arthur J. Eddy (ill.). Jay A. Clarke and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (Art Institute of Chicago, 2020), cat. 35 (ill.), http://artic.edu/digitalwhistler.
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 8, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler (American, 1834–1903)
- Date
- 1894
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 210.7 × 93.3 cm (82 15/16 × 36 3/4 in.)
- Type
- Painting
- Classification
- painting
- Style
- Modernism
- Place
- Paris
- Department
- Arts of the Americas
- Credit line
- Arthur Jerome Eddy Memorial Collection
- Accession no.
- 1931.501
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