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

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M.0927
r.: Ranelagh Gardens; v.: Designs for a china cabinet

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1883/1884
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1905.122a-b
Medium: r.: watercolour; v.: pencil
Support: beige paper; laid down on card
Size: 5 x 8 7/16" (127 x 215 mm)
Signature: none
Inscription: v.: 'Studios' and '05.122A' in unknown hands

r.: Ranelagh Gardens; v.: Designs for a china cabinet

Site

r.: Ranelagh Gardens, Freer Gallery of Art
r.: Ranelagh Gardens, Freer Gallery of Art

The title first associated with this watercolour suggests it was painted in Ranelagh Gardens in Chelsea, London, which had been established on the site of Ranelagh House, as public Pleasure Gardens. The Gardens are just west of Chelsea Bridge Road. There is also a Ranelagh Gardens in Paris, named after the English one, close to the Musée Marmotton.

Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) noted (in a document now in the Freer Gallery of Art), that it was 'Maude seated at breakfast in the garden of the Vale Chelsea' (that is, Whistler's house in The Vale, Chelsea, London. The Vale was just off the King's Road

Sitter

r.: Ranelagh Gardens, Freer Gallery of Art
r.: Ranelagh Gardens, Freer Gallery of Art

Maud Franklin (1857-ca 1941) posed in a similar outfit for Maud seated in the open [M.0926].

Last updated: 6th December 2020 by Margaret