Some years ago I proposed a book on Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McNeill Whistler) to an American publisher. He was completely astonished—“Whistler had a Wife?!”—but, on consideration, would not accept a proposal because she was unknown. This was a common no-win situation, not just with publishers but with galleries, which would not consider exhibition proposals or even exhibit known works. A portrait in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, was on the wall until I pointed out that it was by Beatrice, not James, Whistler! There was an assumption that women could not draw because they were not “trained” or because of some innate inability. Cassatt? Kollwitz? “Exceptions!” Furthermore, since Whistler’s work has guaranteed economic value, collectors prefer that to the untested field of women’s work. Yet the work of Beatrice and her sister Constance Philip was exhibited and sold in its day: Beatrice was often known as “Trix”, “Trixie” or “Beatrix” and actually exhibited as “Rix Birnie”, but given her marriages, I have used her final name, “Beatrice Whistler”, hereafter. Fortunately, Whistler and Rosalind Birnie Philip (Beatrice’s younger sister) thought highly of her work. A selection was given by Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow, and piles of unsorted material arrived with the Philip bequest in 1958. She painted portraits and domestic scenes, and designed jewellery, decorative tiles, and panels for furniture and buildings. We don’t know if the Glasgow collection is the tip, or the iceberg! Many personal letters were destroyed when Beatrice died prematurely of cancer in 1896, but Whistler’s letters to her and hers to collectors and art dealers survive, providing information on her activities. ...In my catalogue raisonné of Whistler’s works on paper (1995) I attributed several drawings to James or Beatrice Whistler, but I now realize most of... (http://www.britishartstudies.ac.uk/index/article-index/still-invisible/issue/issue-2/page/1) undefined

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