The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Two sketches dates from 1878 or 1879. It was drawn on lithographic transfer paper similar to Whistler's first (and unsuccessful) transfer lithograph, Old Battersea Bridge, No. 2 c013. The printer Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) at first dated the latter as 1878 but later claimed that Whistler's early transfer lithographs all dated from 1879. ¹

Two sketches, Collection of Laurence N. Stranger

The drawings are catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 677), but had not been located at that time. This entry has been revised and corrected.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Two sketches, Art Institute of Chicago

The man may be Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890), and the woman, possibly Maud Franklin (1857-1939), although the face looks a little too chubby and the chin too pointed for Franklin, who was Whistler's chief model by this date.

Technique

Technique

The lithographic printer, Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), described this as 'a trial on transfer paper', a potential lithograph. ² Despite several descriptions of this as a lithograph, it was never transferred to stone nor printed. ³

Spink et al describe the paper as a coarse-grained lithographic transfer paper called papier viennois, with an irregular-textured coating. ⁴ It is similar to that used for Old Battersea Bridge, No. 2 c013, which was Whistler's first, and unsuccessful, experiment in using transfer paper (as an alternative to drawing directly on the lithographic stone).

Two sketches, Art Institute of Chicago

The two figures were drawn using different materials. The man was drawn with a hard lithographic crayon, and the woman with 'a softer greasier crayon, combined with applications of brush and tusche on her hat and collar.' ⁵ Tusche is a black grease-like lithographic drawing ink, producing richer, more painterly effects than crayon.

History

Provenance

• By 1905: with Ernest Brown & Phillips, London art dealers.
• Before 1922: bought by Otto Gerstenberg (1848-1935);
• 1922: sold in Gerstenberg sale (cat. no. 91, repr.) as 'Two sketches. Lithographie. W.160. Kleine Knickfalte in der Blattmitte'.
• Date unknown, after 1946: with Ketterer Kunst, Munich print dealer.
• Date unknown: with Michelle and Prout‚ Paris dealers.
• By 1967: bought by Raymond E. Lewis (d. 2005), print dealer, San Francisco;
• After 1967: bought by Ira Gale, art dealer.
• By 1998: owned by Laurence N. Stranger, Los Angeles.
• 2004: given to the Art Institute of Chicago by the Crown Family in honour of James N. Wood.

Exhibitions

• 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. no. 148) as a lithograph, 'Two sketches', 10 x 7".

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 677) as 'Two Sketches'.
• Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998, in vol. 1, 'Untransferred Lithographic Drawings' (cat. no. I), pp. 500, 502.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 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. no. 148) as a lithograph, 'Two sketches', 10 x 7".

Books on Whistler

• Way, Thomas R., Mr Whistler's Lithographs: the Catalogue, 2nd edition, London, 1905 (cat. no. 160).

Websites

• Clarke, Jay A., and Sarah Kelly Oehler, eds., Whistler Paintings and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, 2020, website (cat. no. 19).