The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

r.: A fiddler playing, men dancing; v.: men dancing dates from between 1850 and 1851, when Whistler was a student at Christ Church School, Pomfret.

r.: A fiddler playing, Albright-Knox Art Gallery

v: Men dancing, Albright-Knox Art Gallery

The drawings are fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 75).

Images

Subject

Description

r.: A fiddler playing, Albright-Knox Art Gallery

v: Men dancing, Albright-Knox Art Gallery

The subject may be a barn dance, with numerous figures, musicians and dancers, but only one woman.

Technique

Technique

v: Men dancing, Albright-Knox Art Gallery

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 75).

History

Provenance

• 1850/1851: given to Whistler's teacher, Revd Dr Roswell Park (1807-1869), Pomfret, CT;
• 1869-1978: passed by family descent to Miss Mary Park (by 1907), followed by Dr Park's grandson, Julian Park, and his daughter Mrs Martha Park Koekkoek, Buffalo, NY;
• 1978: given by Mrs Martha Park Koekkoek to the Albright Knox Art Gallery in memory of her father Julian Park.

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 75).

Exhibitions

As far as is known, it was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 75) as 'r.: A fiddler playing, men dancing; v.: men dancing'.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 27.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Exhibition, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, 1907 (catalogue untraced).

Websites

• Albright-Knox Art Gallery website as 'While a Student at Pomfret School, 1850-1851' and website as 'Two For the Price of One'.