The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Red Doorway dates from 1880.

The Red Doorway, Colby College Museum of Art

This pastel is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 795). The record has been updated.

Images

Subject

Site

The Red Doorway, Colby College Museum of Art

Venice, Italy. The site has not been identified.

Technique

Technique

The Red Doorway, Colby College Museum of Art

See details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 795).

History

Provenance

• 1886: bought by Cyril Flower (1843-1907) and owned by him until at least 1905.
• Date unknown: acquired by John Henry Wrenn (1841-1911);
• 1911: on his death, passed by family descent to a private collector, who owned it until at least 1995.
• 2013: given by Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) and Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933) to the Colby College Museum of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no 795). The record has been updated.

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 38) as 'The Red Doorway'.
• 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. 56) as 'A Venetian Watergate'.

Edward William Godwin (1833-1886) praised this pastel as 'remarkable for the quality of decorative beauty'. ¹

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 795) as 'The Red Doorway'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 38) as 'The Red Doorway'.
• 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. 56) as 'A Venetian Watergate'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• 'Art: Venice Pastels', The Observer, London, 6 February 1881, supplement p. 1.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.
• Wedmore, Frederick, 'Fine Art: Mr Whistler's Pastels', The Academy, vol. 29, 19 February 1881, p. 142.
• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Venice; or, Pastels by Pastelthwaite', Punch, vol. 80, 12 February 1881, p. 69.

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, p. 99.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, repr. f.p. 52.

Websites

• Colby College Museum of Art website at http://www.colby.edu/museum.