The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A man smoking a long pipe probably dates from 1854; it was given to Thomas de Kay Winans (1820-1878).

A man smoking a long pipe, Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 172).

Images

Subject

Description

A man smoking a long pipe, Metropolitan Museum of Art

A plump man in long dark robe with full, long sleeves. He has long droopy moustache and smokes a very long pipe. He wears an elaborate close-fitting cap or turban with a long tassel at the back. He may be intended as a chinese or other asian character.

Technique

Technique

A man smoking a long pipe, Metropolitan Museum of Art

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 172).

Conservation History

The sheet has a conspicuous tear below centre left.

This was among numerous drawings given to the Winans family and stuck into an album.

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

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. 172) as 'A man smoking a long pipe'.

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 of Art website as 'Oriental Figure (from Sketchbook)'.