The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Rue des Matelas dates from 1857/1858. It is known only from a photograph.

Rue des Matelas, private collection

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 225) where the inscription was given incorrectly as 'Rue des Matelots'. The drawing has therefore been renamed Rue des Matelas.

Images

Subject

Titles

• 'Rue des Matelots' (1995, MacDonald).
• 'Rue des Matelas' (2017, WPP).

Site

Rue des Matelas, private collection

The Rue des Matelas was a narrow street of half-timbered mediaeval houses in Rouen, an important city on the River Seine, capital of the region of Normandy.

Technique

Conservation History

Rue des Matelas, private collection

According to the owner, Whistler gave her some 'trivial sketches', which she put in an album he had brought from Paris, 'with my name in gold, stamped outside', possibly at Christmas 1858. ¹ These may have been removed and framed later, because she lent 'A frame of ten early pencil sketches' to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in 1905 (cat. no. 207), and these were unmounted and dispersed at a later date

History

Provenance

• 1857/1858: given to Annie Harriet Haden (1848-1937);
• After 1905: several drawings owned by Annie Haden (Mrs Thynne), probably including this, were dispersed at an unknown date.
• Date unknown: according to Christie's, several drawings were bought in Paris by a collector, passed to his daughter, who lived in South America, came into the possession of a gallery in South America and were sold when it closed down.
• 1972: collection of Mrs M. Rossink, sold at auction, Christie's, London, 19 December 1972 (lot 89, repr.) bought by I. D. Gale, art dealer, and sold to a private collector.

Exhibitions

• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 207) as 'A frame of ten early pencil sketches.'

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 225) as 'Rue des Matelots' [sic].

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 207) as 'A frame of ten early pencil sketches.'