Career

Ethel was a secretary to Whistler who used Ethel as a model for a number of full-length portraits painted during the period 1888 to the mid-1890s. In 1896 Ethel married the writer Charles Whibley. Her sister Rosalind Birnie Philip (b 1873) subsequently acted as secretary to Whistler and was appointed Whistler"s executrix at his death.

Ethel was born at Chelsea, London on 29 September 1861.

Ethel was 4th of ten children of the sculptor John Birnie Philip and Frances Black. Ethel married Charles Whibley in 1896 in the garden of the house occupied by James Abbott McNeill Whistler at n° 110 Rue du Bac, Paris.

Whistler painted a number of full-length portraits of Ethel, including Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian and the watercolour Rose and Silver: Portrait of Mrs Whibley. And other sketches and etchings of her titled as Mission Ethel Philip or Mrs Whibley.

Correspondence between family members addressed personal, social and professional matters as Whistler"s sisters-in-law acted as his models and secretaries to manage his business affairs

Portraits in oil of Ethel Whibley are titled:

Mother of Pearl and Silver: The Andalusian (1888–1900)

Sketch for a Portrait of Mission Ethel Philip (1880s/1890s)

Sketch of Mission Ethel Philip (1890s)

Red and Black: The Fan (1891/1894)

Harmony in Brown: The Felt Hat (1891)

Mission Ethel Philip Reading (c 1894)

Rose et or: Louisiana Tulipe (1892/1893)

Harmony in Black: Portrait of Mission Ethel Philip (c 1894)

The Rose Scarf (c 1890) (Oil on wood).