The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study for 'Variations in Blue and Green' dates from between 1868 and 1870.

Study for 'Variations in Blue and Green', photograph, Library of Congress

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 347).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Not identified. Similar models appear in r.: Two nudes reclining on a terrace; v.: Two women looking over a terrace m0345.

Technique

Composition

Study for 'Variations in Blue and Green', photograph, Library of Congress

Variations in Blue and Green, Freer Gallery of Art

The seated figure may be a study for the central figure in Variations in Blue and Green y084.

r: Two nudes reclining on a terrace, The Hunterian

Study for 'Variations in Blue and Green', The Hunterian

However, it is one of three similar studies (with r.: Two nudes reclining on a terrace; v.: Two women looking over a terrace m0345 and Study for 'Variations in Blue and Green' m0346) that may have been for an independent, but unrealised, figure composition.

Technique

Study for 'Variations in Blue and Green', photograph, Library of Congress

r: Two nudes reclining on a terrace, The Hunterian

The drawing is known only from the photograph in the E. R. and J. Pennell Collection, Library of Congress. It appears similar to the recto of r.: Two nudes reclining on a terrace; v.: Two women looking over a terrace m0345.

History

Provenance

• By 1903: possibly owned by James Thomas Knowles (1831-1908);
• 1908: possibly sold in Knowles' sale, Christie's, London, 27 May 1908 (lot 380) among 'Nude Female Studies', and bought by a London art dealer, 'Parsons', £34.13.0.

Exhibitions

• 1903: possibly Collection of Pictures, Drawings, Prints and China, and Decorative Furniture, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1903 (28A or 37A) as 'Nude Study'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 347) as "Study for 'Variations in Blue and Green' ".
• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 84, oil).

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly Collection of Pictures, Drawings, Prints and China, and Decorative Furniture, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1903 (28A or 37A) as 'Nude Study'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Possibly Christie's, London, 27 May 1908 (lot 380) with other 'Nude Female Studies'.