The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Admiration of the Furloughmen dates from 1852 and was given to a fellow cadet at West Point, Alexander Stewart Webb.

The Admiration of the Furloughmen, Library Of Congress

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 105).

Images

Subject

Sitter

The Admiration of the Furloughmen, Library Of Congress

Cadets and a fashionable young man at the United States Military Academy at West Point.

Technique

Technique

The Admiration of the Furloughmen, Library Of Congress

The main figure at left has been changed and made thinner. A figure was scraped out in the centre, and one figure altered and moved to the right. Several figures at right have been crossed out.

The paper is a heavy cartridge paper with a slight pebble grain. There are traces of light reddish brown paper and glue stains on the verso. Rules margins guided the trimming of the drawing.

Conservation History

This is one of several drawings that were stuck in an album by Alexander Stewart Webb (1835-1911), some of which were later removed and dispersed.

History

Provenance

• 1852/1853: given to Alexander Stewart Webb (1835-1911);
• 1911: passed by family descent to a private owner.
• 1944: bought on 6 April with the Pennell Fund for the Library of Congress.

In 1906 Webb told Joseph Pennell (1860-1926) that Whistler had given him 'seven sketches - I have them still'. ¹

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 103).

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, 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. 105) as 'The Admiration of the Furloughmen'.

Websites

• Library of Congress website.