The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0521
r.: The Blue Girl; v.: Curtain
Date
r.: The Blue Girl; v.: Curtain date from 1873/1876; the sheet was acquired by Thomas Way (1837-1915).
r.: The Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art
v.: Curtain, Freer Gallery of Art
The drawings are fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 521).
Images
r.: The Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art
v.: Curtain, Freer Gallery of Art
Subject
Sitter
r.: The Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art
Elinor Leyland (1861-1952).
Technique
Composition
r.: The Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art
This is a detailed study for the The Blue Girl: Portrait of Miss Elinor Leyland y111. The canvas was destroyed by the artist, leaving only vases of flowers at each side, which do not appear in the drawing.
Technique
r.: The Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art
The figure may have been retouched and signed 1890/1893.
v.: Curtain, Freer Gallery of Art
The drawing of the curtain on the verso does not seem to be a design but a sketch of an actual curtain.
History
Provenance
- 1870s: acquired by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
- By 1890s: passed to his son Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913);
- 1905: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, June 1905;
- 1919: Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.
See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 521).
Exhibitions
It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.
By the terms of C. L. Freer's will, this drawing can not be lent to other venues.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 521) as 'r.: The Blue Girl; v.: Curtain'.
- Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (oil, cat. no. 111).
Journals 1855-1905
- Studio, vol. 31, March 1904, repr. p. 96.
- Anon., The Studio Whistler Portfolio, London, 1905 (ten colour reproductions), repr. pl. 8.
Books on Whistler
- Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, p. 143, fig. 3.31.
- Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, pp. 90-91.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 250, pl. 228.
- Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, p. 14, fig. 10.
- Ayako Ono, ホイッスラー展. James McNeill Whistler Retrospective, National Museum of Modern Art, Kyōto, 2014, and Yokohama Museum of Art, 2014–2015, p. 43, fig. 21 (not exhibited).
Websites
- Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1905.126a-c.