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

 

YMSM 012
Copy after Mignard's 'La Vierge à la grappe'

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1857
Collection: Whereabouts Unknown
Accession Number: none
Medium: oil
Support: unknown
Size: unknown
Signature: unknown
Inscription: unknown
Frame: unknown

Copy after Mignard's 'La Vierge à la grappe'

Titles

Only one title is recorded :

  • "Copy after Mignard's 'La Vierge à la grappe' " (1980, YMSM). 1

Description

Whistler's copy has not been located but it is likely to have followed closely in size and composition the original painting, La Vierge à la grappe (1640) by Pierre Mignard (1612-1695) (121 x 94 cm, 48 x 37"; Musée du Louvre, Inv. 663), which was painted in Rome about 1640/1650. It was a popular painting, showing Italian influence.

P. Mignard, La Vierge à la grappe, Louvre
P. Mignard, La Vierge à la grappe, Louvre

Mignard's painting shows the Virgin Mary in red dress and blue robe, seated, with the quite large baby Jesus sitting on a cushion on her lap. A scarf covers her head and that of the child, who holds the scarf up to right. There is a basket of fruit on a table at left, and she holds a bunch of grapes, on which the baby rests his other hand. There is a dark background, with a narrow glimpse through a curtain at right to a cloudy sky and landscape.

Notes:

1: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 12).

Last updated: 21st November 2019 by Margaret