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

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M.0322
r.: Study for 'Symphony in White No. 3'; v.: Draped figures

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1865/1867
Collection: Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica, NY
Accession Number: 69.96
Medium: r: pencil and crayon; v: crayon
Support: off-white laid paper, watermark 'DE ERVEN D. BLAUW'
Size: 5 3/16 x 8 7/16" (182 x 215 mm)
Signature: none
Inscription: none

r.: Study for 'Symphony in White No. 3'; v.: Draped figures

Composition

r.: Study for 'Symphony in White No. 3', Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
r.: Study for 'Symphony in White No. 3', Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
Symphony in White No. 3, Barber Institute
Symphony in White No. 3, Barber Institute

The drawing on the recto is a study related to Symphony in White, No. 3 [YMSM 061], but shows the figures in quite different poses.

v.: Draped figures, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
v.: Draped figures, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute
A Composition: four nudes, The Hunterian
A Composition: four nudes, The Hunterian

The rough sketch on the verso is one of several, including A Composition: four nudes [M.0350], that may be ideas for an unrealised figure composition involving people listening to a musician.

The influence of Albert Joseph Moore (1841-1893) appears strongly in these drawings. Moore's The Marble Seat 1 , exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1865, includes similar figures, though not in this arrangement.

Conservation History

The drawing was torn in four pieces by the artist but rescued and repaired, probably by Thomas Way (1837-1915).

Notes:

1: Private Collection. Sotheby's, New York, 5 May 2011 (lot 76).

Last updated: 17th April 2019 by Margaret