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

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M.1293
r.: Sleeping; v.: Standing Nude

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1890/1893, 1902/1903
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1902.114a-c
Medium: r.: chalk and pastel; v.: watercolour
Support: r.: brown wove paper laid down on card, v.: white paper laid down on the card stamped 'Newman'
Size: 6 15/16 x 10 1/16" (176 x 255 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: v.: 'Paris', possibly by the artist

r.: Sleeping; v.: Standing Nude

Technique

r.: Sleeping, Freer Gallery of Art
r.: Sleeping, Freer Gallery of Art

It was left with Whistler for completion, specifically 'to add some orange', in 1902. 1

See technical details in Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.

Conservation History

On the verso is a narrow, straight figure, a woman in a pink cap, her hair cut in a fringe, and wearing voluminous draperies. There are brown washes across the bottom of the sheet. The figure has been almost entirely washed out.

Notes:

1: Freer memo, 25 August 1902, Freer Gallery of Art.

Last updated: 6th December 2020 by Margaret