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

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M.0261
Le Rhin

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1858
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1898.200
Medium: pencil
Support: off-white wove paper
Size: 6 x 6 1/2-6 11/16" (153 x 166-168 mm)
Signature: none
Inscription: 'Le Rhin' and (on book) 'La Foire aux Vanités / Thackiry [sic]' by Whistler: 'SH', possibly by F. S. Haden; '1858' in an unknown hand

Le Rhin

Site

Le Rhin, Freer Gallery of Art
Le Rhin, Freer Gallery of Art

A sketch on a riverboat on the Rhine in Germany.

Comments

The pile of luggage includes a paperback novel bearing the title 'La Foire aux Vanités', a translation of Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863). It was originally published in English in Punch from 1847-1848, and in book form in London in 1853. The French translation by Georges Guiffrey, published by Hachette, Paris, in 1855, is probably what is depicted. 1

Notes:

1: The inscription does not read 'La Poire aux Vanitee' nor does it refer to 'the recently deposed Louis-Philippe', as suggested in the Freer Gallery of Art website.

Last updated: 2nd March 2021 by Margaret