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

 

M.1081
The Violet Note

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1885/1886
Collection: Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA
Accession Number: P25e5
Medium: chalk and pastel
Support: brown wove paper
Size: 10 1/4 x 6 3/4" (260 x 180 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: none

The Violet Note

Provenance

  • 1886: sold by Whistler to Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840-1924) , Boston, 30-31October 1886; 1
  • 1924: bequeathed to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Full details are in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1081).

Exhibitions

  • 1899: Art Exhibition, Mrs John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon Street, Boston, 1899, p. 8 (cat. no. 22).

Although Whistler apparently wished to exhibit it, there is no record of him doing so. 2

Notes:

1: Whistler to I. S. Gardner, [30/31 October 1886], GUW #09116.

2: Whistler to I. S. Gardner, [31 October 1886], GUW #09114.

Last updated: 27th February 2021 by Margaret