The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Venetian scene dates from 1879/1880.

Venetian scene, New Britain Museum of American Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no0. 749).

Images

Subject

Site

Venetian scene, New Britain Museum of American Art

Venice, Italy: the view is from the Casa Kankowitz in the sestiere of Castello, looking across the bay to Santa Maria della Salute in the distance, to left of centre, with the Grand Canal and Riva degli Schiavoni to right. ¹

Technique

Technique

Venetian scene, New Britain Museum of American Art

This was drawn over another drawing that is still visible, upside down, and shows the facade of a building with a balcony. ²

History

Provenance

• 1937: possibly bought on 6 November by Colnaghi's, London dealers, as 'Venetian Scene', and transferred to Kennedy, New York dealers, in December.
• 1946: bought on 14 May from Hannah Stuart Taylor (1887-1946), wife of Howard R. Taylor (b. 1881), a broker, both of Baltimore, MD, by Knoedler's, New York dealers;
• 1947: sold on 26 May to Macbeth, New York dealers;
• 1947: bought on 27 May by Alexis (Alix) W. Stanley (1872-1953);
• 1950: given to the New Britain Museum of American Art.

The early provenance is unknown.

Exhibitions

No exhibition in Whistler's lifetime has been identified.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 744) as 'Venetian scene'.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 113-14, repr. pl. 133, view repr. pl. 134.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 47, 48, 54, repr. pl. 51.