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

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M.1083
Flesh Colour and Rose

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1888/1889
Collection: Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Accession Number: 1943.609
Medium: chalk and pastel
Support: brown wove paper
Size: 279 x 184 mm (11 x 7 1/4")
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: mount v.: 'No. 59 / Flesh color and Rose'

Flesh Colour and Rose

Provenance

  • Date unknown: possibly owned by Alexander Arnold Hannay (1858-1927) .
  • 1919: bought from E. B. Patterson by Knoedler's, New York art dealers;
  • 1919: sold by Knoedler's to H. Y. Sanderson, 25 April 1919 (Knoedler's #6406, 14701).
  • 1943: bequeathed by Grenville Lindell Winthrop (1864-1943) to the Fogg Art Museum.

Exhibitions

  • 1889: possibly “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 58) as 'Flesh Colour and White'.

The New York Times did not describe this pastel specifically, but commented on 3 March 1889 that 'the Wunderlich exhibition included 'pastels of nude young ladies who rely a good deal on the color of the paper on which they live for their existence.' 1

Whistler asked the high price of 80 guineas in 1889, but it remained unsold, and was returned after the exhibition by Wunderlich's on the SS Servia. 2

Notes:

1: Anon., 'Etchings, Drawings, Pastels', New York Times, New York, 3 March 1889, p. 5.

2: G. Dieterlen, H. Wunderlich & Co., Wunderlich to Whistler, 1 November 1889, GUW #07187. (Cat. no. 58) 'Flesh Colour and White' was also unsold, but half the price.

Last updated: 25th June 2021 by Margaret