The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0290
r.: A girl reclining on a couch, reading; v.: Female head
Date
r.: A girl reclining on a couch, reading; v.: Female head date from about 1858.
r.: A girl reclining on a couch, reading, Freer Gallery of Art
v.: Female head, Freer Gallery of Art
The drawings are fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 290).
Images
r.: A girl reclining on a couch, reading, Freer Gallery of Art
v.: Female head, Freer Gallery of Art
Subject
Sitter
r.: A girl reclining on a couch, reading, Freer Gallery of Art
v.: Female head, Freer Gallery of Art
Not identified. This may be one of the Haden family, in London, but it could equally have been drawn in Paris.
Technique
Conservation History
The sheet may have been taken from a sketchbook.
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.
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. 290) as 'r.: A girl reclining on a couch, reading; v.: Female head'.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 234, pl. 199.
Websites
- Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1898.190, as 'A girl reclining on a couch, reading'.