The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

r.: Figure study; v.: Two studies of a downcast head date from between 1851 and 1853, and was given to Thomas de Kay Winans (1820-1878).

r.: Figure study, Metropolitan Museum of Art

v.: Two studies of a downcast head, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The sheet is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 92).

Images

Subject

Description

r.: Figure study, Metropolitan Museum of Art

A sketch of a young man crawling across the floor, drawing a circle or pointing out something on a circle, probably not drawn from life.

Technique

Technique

r.: Figure study, Metropolitan Museum of Art

v.: Two studies of a downcast head, Metropolitan Museum of Art

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 92).

Conservation History

The drawing was originally stuck into an album (p. 4).

History

Provenance

• 1853/1854: given to Thomas de Kay Winans (1820-1878) and family;
• 1878-1970: passed by family descent to his daughter Celeste Marguerite Winans (Mrs G. M. Hutton) (1855-1925), her daughter Lucette Marguerite Hutton, Mrs H. A. Prichard (1885-1957), and grand-daughters, Margaret Celeste Prichard, Mrs T. A. Buell (1908-1970), Helen Lucette Prichard, Mrs J. M. King (1913-2005), and Sybil Agnes Prichard, Mrs E. G. Walk (1915-2009);
• 1970: given by Margaret C. Buell, Helen L. King, and Sybil A. Walk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Exhibitions

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. 92) as 'r.: Figure study; v.: Two studies of a downcast head'.

Journals 1906-Present

• Pressly, Nancy D., 'Whistler in America: An Album of Early Drawings', Metropolitan Museum Journal, New York, vol. 5, 1972, pp. 125-54.

Websites

• Metropolitan Museum website as 'Gladiator'