Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

 

The Palace in Rags; v.: Houses by a canal, with bridges

Provenance

  • 1886/1892: 'selected' by Whistler and probably bought by Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912) , Baltimore, Maryland.
  • 1915: purchased on 23 November from Albert Louis Roullier (1858-1920) , Albert Roullier Art Galleries, Chicago, by Marshall Field III (1893-1956) , Chicago;
  • By 1938: owned by his ex-wife, Evelyn M. Field, later Mrs Diego Suarez (1888–1979) ;
  • 1960: bought on 15 June by Knoedler's, New York art dealers;
  • 1961: bought in May by Norman Bailey Woolworth (1901-1962) .
  • 1974: purchased through R. M. Light, art dealer, California, by Agnew's, London art dealers;
  • 1974: bought by a private collector;
  • 2014: bought by Thomas Colville Fine Art, New York.

See further details MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 770).

Exhibitions

  • 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 33) as 'The Palace in Rags'.

The Country Gentleman described it appreciatively as 'a mellow diffused light in a sombre chamber.' The Daily Telegraph noted 'a fine bit of gloom, with a poetic gleam of central light.' 1

Notes:

1: Daily Telegraph, London, 5 February 1881; Country Gentleman, 5 February 1881. GUL PC4, pp. 47-48.

Last updated: 14th June 2021 by Margaret