The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Beggars – Winter dates from 1879.

The Beggars – Winter, Freer Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 727).

Images

Subject

Site

The Beggars – Winter, Freer Gallery of Art

The Sotoportego e Corte de le Carozze, looking south-east towards the Campo Santa Margarita, in Venice, Italy. ¹

Technique

Composition

The Beggars – Winter, Freer Gallery of Art

This is a preliminary study for the etching The Beggars [190].

History

Provenance

• 1893: possibly among 'unfinished' Venice drawings, 'The property of a collector', sold at auction, Sotheby's, London, 23 January 1893 (lots 113-130);
• 1893: several of these drawings passed through Dowdeswell, London dealers, to Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934) of Lincoln's Inn, London;
• 1902: 'Doorway' was bought from Theobald by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 727).

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat no. 32) 'The Beggars – Winter'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 167) as 'Doorway'.

It was described in the Daily Telegraph as 'a sketch in which the smallest colouring relieves the black and grey.' ²

By the terms of Freer's will, this cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 727) as 'The Beggars – Winter'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

EXHIBITION:

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat no. 32) 'The Beggars – Winter'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 167) as 'Doorway'.

SALE:

• Sotheby's, London, 23 January 1893 (lots 113-130).

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Venice Pastels, Daily Telegraph, London, 5 February 1881.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon. [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 36-37, site repr. p. 37, fig. 17.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 38-39, 44-45, 99, repr. p. 38, pl. 39.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 265, pl. 257.

Websites

• Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online website (etching. G.190).
• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1902.175a-b.