The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge dates from 1876/1878.

Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

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

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 639).

Images

Subject

Description

Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

An unfinished sketch of a bowl and behind it, to left, a treble-gourd vase.

The Thompson catalogue described the subjects one of a pair of bottles, and one of a pair of bowls, as follows:

'No. 219. Pair of Treble-Gourd Bottles, with long necks. On the two lower gourds leaf-shaped panels with arabesque designs, ornamental bands and the sacred eye; on a blue ground. On the upper gourd four panels with an inscription connected by fillets of diaper; on the neck upright blue leaves with arabesque ornament. Height, 9 ¾ inches.'

'No. 286. Pair of Bowls, with scalloped edge with two rows of shield-shaped panels; on the upper row alternate aster and other flowers; the lower panels, which are moulded, similarly ornamented; on the inner lip a broad band of ornament; in the centre large aster flowers with scroll. Diameter, 8 inches.' ²

Technique

Composition

Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge, Whereabouts unknown

This is a study for Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge m0640.

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. 639) as 'Treble-Gourd Vase with long neck, and Bowl with scalloped edge'.

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 (cat. nos. 219 and 286) repr. pl. XXI.

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).