The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Tall Bridge dates from 1878. It is a study for a lithograph, The Tall Bridge c012, intended for publication in Piccadilly but not published.

The Tall Bridge, Private Collection

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 701).

Images

Subject

Site

The Tall Bridge, Private Collection

Old Battersea Bridge on the River Thames, London. The suspension bridge seen beyond old Battersea Bridge is the new Albert Bridge; the factory chimneys are in Battersea on the south side of the river.

Technique

Composition

The Tall Bridge, Private Collection

The Tall Bridge, lithograph, first state, The Art Institute, Chicago (2004.534)

It is a study for a lithograph, The Tall Bridge c012. It was drawn on the same lithographic stone as Old Battersea Bridge m0700. However, it was not published.

Technique

The lithographer, Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) said that when Whistler was asked to draw two lithographs for the new magazine Piccadilly in 1878, "he forthwith made two studies of Old Battersea Bridge on brown paper, and brought them to the Wellington Street office, and there and then drew them on a fresh stone. `The long Bridge' and `The Tall Bridge' were at once printed". ¹

History

Provenance

• 1919: possibly sold with Old Battersea Bridge m0700 at Sotheby's, London, 27 May 1919 (lot 169) as 'pencil' (sic) studies for Lithographic reproduction, together with impressions of the lithographs, and bought by Colnaghi, London dealers.
• 1973: sold from the collection of Christopher Norris Esq., at auction, Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1973 (lot 8) and bought by William Darby, London dealer.
• After 1976: sold by Somerville & Simpson, London art dealers, to a private collector.
• Before 2007: owned by Catherine Gamble Curran (1926-2007), New York;
• 2008: sold at auction from the Estate of Catherine Gamble Curran, Sotheby's, London, 22 May 2008 (lot 82).

The early and recent history of both Old Battersea Bridge m0700 and The Tall Bridge m0701 is difficult to disentangle.

Further details are in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 701).

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 701) as 'The Tall Bridge'.
• 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 (lithograph, cat. no. 12).

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITIONS:

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Whistler. The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, Agnew and Sons, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; City Art Gallery, Glasgow, 1976.
• newMacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, 1984.
• Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, Art Institute of Chicago and National Gallery of Canada, 1998–1999.

SALES:

• Sotheby's, London, 27 May 1919 (lot 169).
• Sotheby's, London, 21 November 1973 (lot 8).
• Sotheby's, London, 22 May 2008 (lot 82).