The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0611
Tall Vase, with Bulging Body

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1876/1878
Collection: Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum
Accession Number: 25-32b
Medium: pencil, pen, dark brown ink and wash
Support: cream wove paper
Size: 8 5/16 x 6 3/8" (212 x 162 mm)
Signature: two butterflies
Inscription: none
Date
Tall Vase, with Bulging Body dates from 1876/1878. It is an illustration in a catalogue
of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894). 1

Tall Vase, with Bulging Body, Glasgow Museums
The small butterfly was added in 1893.
It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 611).
Images

Tall Vase, with Bulging Body, Glasgow Museums
Subject
Description

Tall Vase, with Bulging Body, Glasgow Museums
The Thompson catalogue described this as: 'Tall Vase, with bulging body. Thirty-two shield-shaped medallions with cross-hatched plants and leaves; round the neck and foot an ornamental band; the covers similarly ornamented.' 2
Technique
Composition

Tall Vase, with Bulging Body, Glasgow Museums
This is an illustration for Plate VIII, 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).
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1893: probably acquired by Deprez and Gutekunst, London dealers;
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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
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1893: Freer bought one, Vase with slightly bulging body m0617, and the remainder were sold by Deprez and Gutekunst to Williams;
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1904: in September Max Williams sold eleven drawings to Col. Robert James Bennet (1843-1916), Glasgow; 4
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1905: on 24 February John Craibe Angus (1861-1910), Glasgow art dealer, submitted eleven drawings to Joseph Pennell (1860-1926);
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1905: returned by Pennell to Craibe Angus, and sold at some time to a Scottish collector.
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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. 611) as 'Tall Vase, with Bulging Body'.
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. 24) repr. pl. VIII.
Notes:
1: Thompson 1878 [more].
2: Thompson 1878 [more], p. 6 (cat. no. 24) repr. pl. 7.
3: J. H. Jordan to Freer, 1 May 1893, Freer Gallery of Art.
4: Fitzroy Carrington to E. R. Pennell, 5 September 1906, Library of Congress. The drawings were Oviform Vase m0596, Oviform Vase and Cover m0603, Large Bowl and Cover m0605, Oviform Vase m0609, Ewer and Cover m0610, Tall Vase, with Bulging Body m0611, Beaker m0615, Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck m0619, Large Bowl and Cover m0634, Bottle of compressed globular form m0636, and Teapot, in the form of a pomegranate m0642.