The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Figure Reading dates from 1871/1873.

Figure Reading, Fitzwilliam Museum

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 487).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Figure Reading, Fitzwilliam Museum

Probably Frances Leyland (1834-1910).

Technique

Composition

Figure Reading, Fitzwilliam Museum

Possibly a preliminary idea for the composition of Symphony in Flesh Colour and Pink: Portrait of Mrs Frances Leyland y106, or another portrait of Mrs Leyland.

History

Provenance

• By 1903: owned by Mrs Charles Julius Kino/Knowles (née Louisa Essinger) (b.1850, m.1874), Kensington Gore;
• 1959: bequeathed by her son, Guy John Fenton Kino or Knowles (1879-1959), to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

See also MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 428).

Exhibitions

• 1903-1904: probably Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 186) as 'Liseuse' and Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, Goupil Gallery, London, 1904 (cat. no. 32) as 'Figure Reading'.
• 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. 186) as 'Reading'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 124) as 'Figure Reading'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 428) as 'Figure Reading'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Probably Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (186) as 'Liseuse' and Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, Goupil Gallery, London, 1904 (cat. no. 32) as 'Figure Reading'.
• 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. 186) as 'Reading'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 124) as 'Figure Reading'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1998, and National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1999.

Journals 1906-Present

• Tedeschi, Martha, and Salvesen, Britt, Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, The Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, Chicago, 1998, vol. 24, p. 30, no. 13, fig. 17.

Websites

• Fitzwilliam Museum website.