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

 

The Red Doorway

Provenance

  • 1886: bought by Cyril Flower (1843-1907) and owned by him until at least 1905.
  • Date unknown: acquired by John Henry Wrenn (1841-1911) ;
  • 1911: on his death, passed by family descent to a private collector, who owned it until at least 1995.
  • 2013: given by Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) and Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933) to the Colby College Museum of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no 795). The record has been updated.

Exhibitions

  • 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 38) as 'The Red Doorway'.
  • 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 56) as 'A Venetian Watergate'.

Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) praised this pastel as 'remarkable for the quality of decorative beauty'. 1

Notes:

1: Anon., [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.

Last updated: 24th February 2021 by Margaret