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

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M.0127
Conundrums

Artist: James McNeill Whistler and others
Date: 1853/1856
Collection: Private Collection
Accession Number: none
Medium: pen and brown ink
Support: off-white browned paper
Size: (a) 82 x 114 mm (3 1/4 x 4 1/2"); (b) 90 x 88 mm (3 9/16 x 3 1/2"); (c) 85 x 60 mm (3 3/8 x 2 3/8"); (d) 73 x 160 mm (2 7/8 x 6 5/8"); (e) 44 x 77 mm (1 3/4 x 32); (f) 81 x 145 mm (3 3/16 x 5 11/16"); (g) 63 x 142 mm (2 1/2 x 5 9/16"); (h) 45 x 120 mm (1 3/4 x 4 3/42); (i) 132 x 90 mm (5 3/16 x 3 9/162); (j) 132 x 90 mm (5 3/16 x 3 9/16"); (k) 100 x75 mm (3 15/16 x 2 15/162); (l) 135 x 110 mm (5 5/16 x 4 1/4"); (m) 74 x 105 mm (2 7/8 x 4 1/8"); (n) 162 x 101 mm (6 5/16 x 3 15/16"); (o) 72 x 104 mm (2 3/4 x 4"); (p) 99 x 197 mm (3 7/8 x 7 11/16"); (q) 62 x 121 mm (2 7/16 x 4 3/42); (r) 128 x 129 mm (5 x 5 1/16"); (s) 61 x 112 mm (2 5/16 x 4 3/8"); (t) 49 x 112 mm (1 7/8 x 4 3/8"); (u) 72 x 111 mm (2 3/4 x 4 5/16"); (v) 112 x 86 mm (4 3/8 x 3 5/16")
Signature: none
Inscription: various, see SUBJECT/ Description

Conundrums

Provenance

  • 1853: drawn for Absalom Baird (1824-1905) , Associate Professor of Mathematics at West Point, and his wife Cornelia Wyntje Baird née Smith (1828-1883);
  • 1905: bequeathed to their son, Lieutenant Colonel William Baird (1851-1930);
  • 1930: bequeathed to his daughter, Nancy C. Hicks Daly (1917-1975) and her husband Brigadier General John Harold Daly (1915-1977);
  • 1977: passed by family descent to a private collection.

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 127): the record has been revised.

Exhibitions

As far as is known, it was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Last updated: 8th April 2019 by Margaret