The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Saucer-shaped Dish dates from 1876/1878.

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

Saucer-shaped Dish, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 629).

Images

Subject

Description

Saucer-shaped Dish, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

A slightly mis-shapen study of a saucer-shaped diash, lit from the left and casting a slight shadow to right. The Thompson catalogue described the subject as one of two such dishes:

'No. 113. Two Saucer-shaped Dishes. Sharply drawn flowers and leaves painted in white enamel, which form a raised pattern on a ground of bright powder blue. The under part, as far as the foot, similar in colour and design; the centre panel surrounded by a white line; on the inner edge two similar lines. Mark, double ring and figure 15. Diameter, 13 inches.'

²

Technique

Composition

Saucer-shaped Dish, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Square Canister with square neck, and saucer-shaped Dish, Freer Gallery of Art

This is a preliminary design for Square Canister with square neck, and saucer-shaped Dish m0631. In the final design, Whistler placed the dish more upright, to solve his apparent problem with its perspective.

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. 629) as 'Saucer-shaped Dish'.

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 (202 or 113) repr. pl. XVII.

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).