The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Four figures on a terrace dates from 1870/1873.

Four figures on a terrace, The Hunterian

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 386).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Not identified. It is not known if Whistler used models at this time for all his figure drawings. This looks as if it was done entirely from memory and imagination.

Technique

Composition

Four figures on a terrace, The Hunterian

Variations in Blue and Green, Freer Gallery of Art

Symphony in Blue and Pink, Freer Gallery of Art

Similar poses appear in both Variations in Blue and Green y084 and Symphony in Blue and Pink y086, but the overall arrangement of figures is different.

Technique

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 386).

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1958: bequeathed by Miss Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

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

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 386) as 'Four figures on a terrace'.
• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (oils, cat. nos. 84 and 86).

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.