The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Large Bowl and Cover dates from 1876/1878; the second butterfly was added in 1893.

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

Large Bowl and Cover, Glasgow Museums

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 634).

Images

Subject

Description

Large Bowl and Cover, Glasgow Museums

The Thompson catalogue described the subject as follows:

'Large Bowl and Cover of very white porcelain; twelve tall upright asters separated by the point of a broad leaf and terminating in two lines; round the neck eight flowers connected by a band of pinnate leaves, the cover similarly ornamented and surmounted by a kylin of unglazed porcelain; round the rim a running band of leaf ornament. Mark, double ring. Height, 10 inches.' ²

Technique

Composition

Large Bowl and Cover, Glasgow Museums

This is an illustration for Plate XIX, 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. 634) as 'Large Bowl 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. 285) repr. pl. XIX.