The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Oviform Vase dates from 1876/1878. It is a preliminary study for an illustration in a catalogue of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894). ¹

Oviform Vase, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 595).

Images

Subject

Description

Oviform Vase, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

The Thompson catalogue described the subject of the study as one of a pair of vases:

'Pair of Oviform Vases. On one a procession of horse and foot soldiers, carrying banners, state umbrellas, and other badges of office; on the other a mandarin, attended by three warriors, addressing an official seated at a table writing with two attendants behind him. On the neck bamboo branches. The covers, which are decorated with a conventional leaf pattern, are surmounted by a small blue kylin. Height, 11 inches.' ²

The illustration shows the second of these, including two guards with spears at left, a warrior in front, and a mandarin at right, very roughly indicated in this study. The vase is lit from the left and a slight shdow is indicated behind and to right..

Technique

Composition

Oviform Vase, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Oviform Vase, Glasgow Museums

This is a preliminary study for Plate I, Thompson 1878 [more].

History

Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879: 29 preliminary drawings, 'sketches of blue and white vases, in the collection of Sir H. Thompson' were sold at auction, London, Christie, 7 February 1879 (lot 534) and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930) for 1 guinea;
• 1930: bequeathed to his daughter Sybil Christina Waller (1882-1973);
• 1965: 29 drawings were sold at Christie's, London, 12 November 1965 (lot 32A), bought by Julius H. Weitzner (1896-1986), London dealer; ³
• 1969: sold by Knoedler's, New York dealers, to the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute on 19 May 1969.

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. 595) as 'Oviform Vase'.

Authored by Whistler

• Thompson, Sir Henry, A Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain Forming the Collection of Sir Henry Thompson. Illustrated ... from Drawings by James Whistler ... and Sir Henry Thompson, London, 1878, final design (cat. no. 6) pl. 1.

Catalogues 1855-1905

SALE:

• 29 preliminary drawings, 'sketches of blue and white vases, in the collection of Sir H. Thompson' were sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lot 534).