James Coutts Michie

This 1909 painting by James Coutts Michie is a direct copy of Whistler’s famous 1872 self-portrait, produced just before the original was sold by Mary Michie, the artist’s wife. The original was first purchased by the Ionides family, later selling it to Mary’s first husband, the Australian millionaire George McCulloch, who bequeathed it to Mary. Whistler was famously incensed by the commercial path of the portrait, calling the Ionides' decision to sell the work for £700 (having originally paid only £50) a case of ‘monstrous shamelessness’. Despite his anger at people making money ‘out of his brain’, Whistler used the high sale price as a justification to raise the prices of his other works. Michie’s copy served as a keepsake for himself and Mary, as the original left Britain via sale to Henry Glover Stevens of Detroit, and is now in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Art.