The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Man in a top hat probably dates from 1854. It was given to Thomas de Kay Winans (1820-1878).

Man in a top hat, Metropolitan Museum of Art

For more information on this work, see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 181).

Images

Subject

Description

Man in a top hat, Metropolitan Museum of Art

A man in tall top hat and tailcoat crouches down, pointing at something on the ground to left.

Technique

Technique

Man in a top hat, Metropolitan Museum of Art

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 181).

Conservation History

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. 181) as 'Man in a top hat'.

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 'Man bending to point'.