Jane Noseda

Identity:

Mrs Jane Noseda, the wife of Urban Noseda, was a print seller and print publisher in the Strand. They appear to have had at least three children, Urban, Edith and Bertha. Urban (ca 1854-1909) succeeded in the family print and publishing business. Her address was 24 Wellington Street, Strand, London (in 1871 or 1872), 109 Strand (1863, 1872-1883), King Street, St James's Square (from ca 1900).

Life:

Noseda had for a time in her possession Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother y101, which she apparently offered for sale for £100, to Whistler's anger. She also later held Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket y170 and Arrangement in Brown y182, two of four pictures deposited with her by Charles Augustus Howell, who often acted as intermediary between herself and Whistler [GUW #12735, #12061, #12065].

Noseda and her husband were subpoenaed to produce both these works at Whistler's libel trial against John Ruskin in 1878 [GUW #08905, #11946, #13279]. Noseda also acquired a number of Whistler's sketches [see Studies for the Mummy Cloth & Notes for Dress m0568] and etchings.

In 1881, at the age of sixty-seven, Noseda was a patient at the house of Edmund Smeeth, Southwark. A print sale of the late Urban Noseda was held at Sotheby's, London, on 2-4 June 1909.

Bibliography:

UK census 1881; Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908; Lugt, Frits, Les marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes: marques estampillèes et écrites de collections particulières et publiques; marques de marchands, de monteurs et d'imprimeurs; etc..., Amsterdam, 1921, no. 1948; Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980; MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995. Mark Westgarth, Dictionary of XIXc antique and curiosity dealers, 2009, p. 144

Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online.

British Museum website.