About this artwork
MacNicol’s promising career was cut short when she died at the age of thirty-four from pregnancy complications. Little is known of the artist. After her widowed husband died, his second wife sold all of his and MacNicol’s paintings and many of them are now lost. This painting is one of few known works by her and relates to two other portraits (which she called ‘fancy heads’); titled The Ermine Ruff and Portrait of a Lady with her Fan. The influence of American painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) can be seen in the decorative design and subdued tonality of this picture.
Updated before 2020
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artist:Bessie MacNicol (1869 - 1904) Scottish
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title:Portrait of a Lady ('Phyllis in Town')
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date created:Dated 1904
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materials:Oil on panel
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measurements:35.50 x 24.80 cm; Framed: 54.00 x 44.00 x 5.80 cm / 4.00 kg
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object type:
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credit line:Presented by Mrs Isabel M. Traill 1979
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accession number:NG 2393
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gallery:
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subject:
Bessie MacNicol
Bessie MacNicol
MacNicol studied at the Glasgow School of Art from 1887 to 1893. Under the directorship of Fra Newbery her contemporaries included the Macdonald sisters Margaret and Frances, Jessie Keppie and Kate Cameron. In 1893 MacNicol exhibited at the Royal Academy in London before undertaking further studies...