The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Square Canister with expanding neck dates from 1876/1878.

It is an illustration for a catalogue of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894), published in 1878. ¹

Square Canister with expanding neck, Freer Gallery of Art

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 626).

Images

Subject

Description

Square Canister with expanding neck, Freer Gallery of Art

The Thompson catalogue described the subject as follows:

'Square Canister with expanding neck. On one panel a sage seated on a rock, below which is a stag; on another panel two mandarins or persons of rank giving instructions to a warrior; on a third a rocky landscape with two figures carrying baskets; on the remaining one female figure, probably a goddess, appearing to a man who is leading an ox over a bridge; numerous birds flying round the bridge. On the neck lotus flowers and symbols. Height, 11 ½ inches.' ²

The side on the left depicts the 'two mandarins or persons of rank giving instructions to a warrior'; the one to right certainly shows two figures in a landscape, but no baskets are visible. The canister is lit from the left, and the side seen at right is in shadow.

Technique

Composition

Square Canister with expanding neck, Freer Gallery of Art

Square Canister with expanding neck, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

This is an illustration for Plate XIV, Thompson 1878 [more]. There is one preliminary study, Square Canister with expanding neck m0625.

History

Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879/1883: possibly among drawings sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-33) or one of 'three sketches' sold at Sotheby's, London, 19 February 1883 (lot 366), and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930).
• 1907: Obach & Co, London dealers, sold six drawings to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, on 22 October 1907; ³
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 590).

Exhibitions

• 1878: A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson, Murray Marks gallery, London, 1878.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. nos. 156-161) as 'Illustrations to Sir Henry Thompson's catalogue of his Collection of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain, 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.

It is almost certain that the drawings lent by Pickford Waller to the 1905 exhibition were among some of the final drawings for the Thompson catalogue. These included Globular-shaped Bottle with long neck, and a deep dish m0628, Plate, Bowl with a cover surmounted by a cup-shaped knob, Globular-shaped Bottle with long neck, and Eight-sided Bowl m0633, Large Cylindrical Vase with hollow neck m0638, Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge m0640, Globular Bottle with long thin neck, Cylindrical-shaped Pot with flat cover surmounted by a knob, and Shallow Bowl m0644, Oviform Pot and cover m0647, and Beaker with expanding neck m0649.

However, another group, owned in 1905 by Waller but acquired shortly after the exhibition by C. L. Freer, could have been the ones selected for exhibition. These were Cylindrical Jar m0594, Bottle m0599, Oviform Ginger-Jar with Bell-Shaped Cover m0601, Cylindrical Vase with thick neck m0622, Square Canister with long neck m0624, Square Canister with expanding neck m0626, Square Canister with square neck, and saucer-shaped Dish m0631.

By the terms of Freer's will, this drawing cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 626) as 'Square Canister with expanding neck'.

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, p. 47 (cat. no. 242) repr. pl. XIV.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson, Murray Marks gallery, London, 1878.
• Possibly Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. nos. 156-161) as 'Illustrations to Sir Henry Thompson's catalogue of his Collection of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain, 1878.'

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907, p. 158 (cat. no. 20).
• Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, p. 94. fig. 2.15.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 154 (cat. no. 34).
• Taylor, Hilary, James McNeill Whistler, London, 1978, pl. 32.

Books, General

• Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 61.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 44, 108, pl. 9.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1903.177a-b.