The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0538
At the piano
Date
At the piano dates from 1875. It is a study for The Piano [144], which is dated 1875.
At the piano, Art Institute of Chicago
The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 538) where it is dated '1873/5'.
Images
At the piano, Art Institute of Chicago
The Piano, drypoint, G.144, National Gallery of Art, DC
At the piano, Private Collection
Note that the images were wrongly identified in the 1995 catalogue, with the image of At the piano m0539 (private collection) entered as At the piano m0538, in the Art Institute of Chicago.
Subject
Sitter
At the piano, Art Institute of Chicago
Alice Foy Greaves (1852-1921).Joseph Pennell (1860-1926), who saw it in 1913, and William Marchant, in 1918, identified it as Miss Greaves.
Technique
Composition
At the piano, Art Institute of Chicago
At the piano, Private Collection
The Piano, drypoint, G.144, National Gallery of Art, DC
This is one of two studies (see also At the piano m0539, reproduced above) for the drypoint The Piano [144].
Technique
At the piano, Art Institute of Chicago
The Art Institute of Chicago identified the medium as black chalk rather than conté crayon, as suggested in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 538). 1
History
Provenance
- 1910/1918: possibly one of two sketches of 'Miss Greaves' sold by Frida Uhl Strindberg (1872-1943) to William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London art dealer.
- 1927: bequeathed by Charles Deering (1852-1927) to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Little is known of the provenance; see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 538).
Exhibitions
There is no record of an exhibition 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. 538) as 'At the piano'.
Websites
- Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online website., G.144.
- Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website (cat. no. 17).
Notes:
1: Stephanie L. Strother, 'Cat. 17 At the Piano, 1873/75: Curatorial Entry,' in Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website (cat. no. 17).