The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

'Deux Artistes célèbres de Paris...' probably dates from October 1858.

'Deux Artistes célèbres de Paris...', Freer Gallery of Art

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 283).

Images

Subject

Site

'Deux Artistes célèbres de Paris...', Freer Gallery of Art

Probably a village or town on the route taken from the Rhineland to France by Whistler and his friend Ernest Delannoy (d. 1869/1872).

Sitter

A town crier, perhaps. Whistler earnt their food by drawing portraits of the locals.

Technique

Conservation History

The sheet was probably taken from a sketchbook. Over fifty drawings, many in sketchbooks, most of which dated from 1857-1858, were apparently given to Whistler's half-sister Deborah and/or her husband, Francis Seymour Haden, and were later removed from the sketchbooks.

History

Provenance

• 1858: probably given to Deborah Delano Haden (1825-1908) or her husband Francis Seymour Haden, Sr (1818-1910);
• 1898: sold through Wunderlich, New York dealers, to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919);
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

See further details in r.: Les Côtes à Dieppe; v.: Cliffs and building m0222.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Due to the conditions of Freer's will, it cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 283) as 'Deux Artistes célèbres de Paris'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 27, 228, pl. 184.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1898.161 as 'Deux Artistes Célèbres de Paris'.