The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sketch for a Nocturne dates from 1872/1875.

Sketch for a Nocturne, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 475).

Images

Subject

Site

Sketch for a Nocturne, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

The River Thames as seen from Chelsea, London.

Technique

Conservation History

Sketch for a Nocturne, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

The drawing was torn across by Whistler and repaired by Thomas Way (1837-1915) or Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913).

History

Provenance

• 1870s: acquired by Thomas Way (1837-1915) and passed to his son Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913);
• 1913: bequeathed to his wife Amy Ellen Cox, Mrs T. R. Way (1865-1949).
• Date unknown: acquired by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930);
• 1930: bequeathed to his daughter Sybil Christina Waller (1882-1973);
• 1965: sold at auction, Christie's, London, 12 November 1965 (lot 35) and bought by Knoedler's, New York art dealers;
• 1969: bought by the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute.

Exhibitions

• It was not 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 475) as 'Sketch for a Nocturne'.

Books on Whistler

• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, pp. 14-15, repr. p. 14.