The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Ewer and Cover dates from 1876/1878. It is an illustration in a catalogue of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894). ¹

The small butterfly was added in 1893.

Ewer and Cover, Glasgow Museums

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 610).

Images

Subject

Description

Ewer and Cover, Glasgow Museums

The Thompson catalogue described this as one of a pair:

'Pair of Ewers and Covers. On either side a shield-shaped medallion with conventional leaves on a ground of transparent wavy blue; between these, two similar panels; above, a band of ornament terminating on either side in stiff blue leaves; on the neck a band of ornament, the body covered with reticulated pattern; on the spout and handle a running pattern of leaves and flowers with blue dots on either side; on the cover an arabesque design. Height, 7 1/4 inches.' ²

Technique

Composition

Ewer and Cover, Glasgow Museums

This is an illustration for Plate VI, Thompson 1878 [more].

History

Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879: possibly sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-533), and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930) (see Cylindrical Jar m0594).
• 1893: probably acquired by Deprez and Gutekunst, London dealers;
• 1893: signed by Whistler at the request of the New York dealer Max Williams (d. 1928), and offered to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) of Detroit; ³
• 1893: Freer bought one, Vase with slightly bulging body m0617, and the remainder were sold by Deprez and Gutekunst to Williams;
• 1904: in September Max Williams sold eleven drawings to Col. Robert James Bennet (1843-1916), Glasgow; ⁴
• 1905: on 24 February John Craibe Angus (1861-1910), Glasgow art dealer, submitted eleven drawings to Joseph Pennell (1860-1926);
• 1905: returned by Pennell to Craibe Angus, and sold at some time to a Scottish collector.
• 1925: given by Robert Douglas MacGregor (1850-1934) of Wiston Lodge, Lamington, Lanarkshire, to Glasgow City Art Gallery (now Glasgow Museums).

Exhibitions

• 1878: A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson, Murray Marks gallery, London, 1878.

The porcelain, the final drawings, and the newly published catalogue, were exhibited in Murray Marks's shop in London, the private view being held on 30 April 1878.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 610) as 'Ewer and Cover'.

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 (cat. no. 254) repr. pl. VI.