The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
m0079a
L'elopement
Date
L'elopement dates from 1851 and was given to a fellow-cadet at West Point, Robert B. Thomas.
L'elopement, Private Collection
Images
L'elopement, Private Collection
Subject
Description
L'elopement, Private Collection
A woman swathed in a shawl is clasped by a man in a heavy cloak and cap. Behind them are suggestions of a door at left, which the man is presumably closing, set in a wall with foliage at the top.
Technique
Technique
L'elopement, Private Collection
It was drawn with a fine nibbed pen, in considerable detail, with intricate cross-hatching.
Conservation History
All four corners are trimmed diagonally, and the sheet mounted in an album. The edges of the pages ar abraded and torn, and coming adrift from the album.
History
Provenance
- 1851: given to Cadet Robert Brenham Thomas (1826-1901) of Kentucky;
- Date unknown: given to his godson;
- Date unknown: passed by family descent to his son and grand-daughter;
- 2012: appraised for the latter by Alasdair Nichol, Freeman's Auctioneers, Philadelphia, PA, in the PBS Roadshow in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, 23 June 2012.
Robert Brenham Thomas graduated from West Point in the class of 1852. He resigned within four years and during the Civil War he rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Florida Militia of the Confederate Army. He was briefly City Clerk of Tampa, FA, where he married Mary E. Ferris. After her death he married first, Sarah McKay and later, Fannie Givens. He became a bank clerk in New Orleans, agent of the Cedar Key, Tampa and Key West Steamship Company and finally a Customs Inspector. 1 He was born in Kentucky on 20 November 1826, died on 25 January 1901 in Tampa, Florida, and was buried at Oaklawn Cemetery.
Exhibitions
It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- None.
Websites
- Roadshow, PBS, 23 May 2012, Hour 2 (#1708), website at http://www.pbs.org (acc. 2012).
Notes:
1: Biographical Register of the Officers, 2009 edition, #1553). Register of Officers and Graduates of the United States Military Academy Class of 1852, website. The City Clerks of Tampa, Tampa, 2017, website at https://www.tampagov.net.