The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

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

Rue des belles femmes, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 226).

Images

Subject

Site

Rue des belles femmes, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

There was a Rue des Belles-Femmes in Rouen until 1861, so-called because of the number of brothels in the street. It was replaced by the rue Jeanne d'Arc. However, it is not certain that Whistler's drawing shows that site.

Technique

Conservation History

Rue des belles femmes, photograph, Pennell Collection, Library of Congress

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.

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. 226) as 'Rue des belles femmes'.

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.'