The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nocturne – The Riva dates from 1880.

Nocturne – The Riva, The Frick Collection

This pastel is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 799).

Images

Subject

Site

Nocturne – The Riva, The Frick Collection

The Riva degli Schiavoni, looking towards Santa Maria della Salute (on the right), Venice, Italy. ¹

Technique

Technique

Nocturne – The Riva, The Frick Collection

This is dscussed in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 799).

History

Provenance

• 1903: with William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London art dealer;
• By 1905: probably bought from Marchant by Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914), of Providence, Rhode Island;
• 1912: sold in March to Knoedler, New York dealers (#13433, 13579, 3905);
• 1914: sold to Stephen Carlton Clark (1882-1960), New York, in March, but returned in February 1915;
• 1915: sold in April to Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919).

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 10) as 'Nocturne – The Riva'.
• 1903-1904: Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 175) and 1904 (cat. no. 27) as 'Nocturne, Venice'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 154) as 'Nocturne. Venise'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 799) as 'Nocturne – The Riva'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 10).
• Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 175) and 1904 (cat. no. 27) as 'Nocturne, Venice'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 154) as 'Nocturne. Venise'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Venice Pastels', Daily News, London, 31 January 1881, p. 2.
• Wedmore, Frederick, 'Fine Art: Mr Whistler's Pastels', The Academy, vol. 29, 19 February 1881, p. 142.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon. [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.
• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Wenice; or, Pastels by Pastelthwaite', Punch, vol. 80, 12 February 1881, p. 69.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 163-64, repr. pl. 209, view repr. pl. 210.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, p. 59, repr. pl. 67, view pl. 73.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, p. 92.

Books, General

• The Frick Collection: Drawings, Prints & Later Acquisitions, volume 9, New York: The Frick Collection, 2003.

Websites

• 'Landscape drawings in the Frick Collection', The Frick Collection website at https://www.frick.org/exhibitions/landscape/whistler.
• The Frick Collection website at https://collections.frick.org/objects/284/nocturne-venice.