Conservation History

The pastel was sent, framed, to Whistler in June 1893 to be signed. It arrived with the frame and glass broken but, as Whistler wrote,

'the drawing itself escaped' and, he added, 'I doubt if it were one of those exhibited with the Venice series at all - It seems to me more likely to have been one of the discarded ones that may have afterwards found its way out of the studio … it has been touched up by someone else - / There is a certain passage in the sky of an abominable and crude colour not by me.' 1

D. C. Thomson sent Whistler £5 for adding a signature to 'that pastel which has worried you so much' and eventually, on 20 July, the artist, then at 110 rue du Bac, promised to touch up the pastel next day, after which Joyant of Goupil's Paris branch could pick it up and 'pack it and "mark it with a T" ' but, said Whistler, he would rather have drawn a new pastel than repair an old one. 2