The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Blue and silver – The lslands, Venice dates from 1880, but was signed later, possibly in 1884, or the later 1880s.

Blue and silver – The lslands, Venice, Freer Gallery of Art

The pastel is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 822).

Images

Subject

Site

Blue and silver – The lslands, Venice, Freer Gallery of Art

A panoramic view of islands off Venice, Italy. The sheet was cut from a larger sheet on which had been drawn a steep flight of stairs through an archway with figures coming down, visible sideways on.

Technique

Technique

Blue and silver – The lslands, Venice, Freer Gallery of Art

The technique is discussed in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 822).

History

Provenance

• 1884: bought through Messrs Dowdeswell by William Baptiste Wordsworth Scoones (1838 or 1839-1906), 14 Chelsea Embankment, London;
• 1905: bought through William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London dealer, by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, on 28 July for 200 gns plus commission;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 50) as 'Blue and Silver – The Islands, Venice'.
• 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. 92).

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 822) as 'Blue and silver – The lslands, Venice'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 50) as 'Blue and Silver – The Islands, Venice'.
• 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. 92).

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Gallery', The Daily News, London, 21 May 1884, p. 7.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, p. 180, repr. pl. 236.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 57, 59, 99, 104-05, repr. pl. 111.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 267, pl. 261.
• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, p. 28 (cat. no. 1).

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1905.215a-c.