Carmen Rossi

Carmen Rossi was a model for Whistler both as a child and again as a young woman in the late 1890s. From 1898 to 1901, she ran an art school, Académie Whistler, for which the artist wrote a “code of conduct” and where he gave informal lessons. He severed his ties for health reasons in 1901, and the Académie Whistler closed shortly thereafter. A receipt from Whistler’s dealer in New York, E.G. Kennedy of Wunderlich & Co., shows that Alfred Pope returned another Whistler portrait, Little Rose of Lyme Regis (now at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, in the American Wing, USA) in 1896 for a credit of $3,500 in exchange for Carmen Rossi at a cost of $2,100. Mr. Pope was friends with Whistler at this time and inquired as to whether the work was signed, for which the artist admonished him for not seeing his butterfly monogram emblazoned on Carmen’s sleeve. The Popes met Mr. and Mrs. Whistler while on a trip to England and Europe in 1894. Hill-Stead’s archives include correspondence between Whistler and Pope that reveals the depth of their friendship and mutual regard. Hill-Stead’s collection includes over 20 works by Whistler, both paintings and prints.