The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Study for 'The Beggars' is signed and dated 18 September 1881. It is related to an etching, The Beggars [190], which was started in Venice in 1879. Whistler had printed impressions for The Fine Art Society right through 1881 (he delivered five impressions on 16 February 1881, thirteen on 6 April, four on 25 August). ¹

Study for 'The Beggars', photograph, LC PC

Catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 864).

Images

Subject

Site

Study for 'The Beggars' , photograph, LC PC

Study for 'The Beggars' (K194) is related to an etching, The Beggars [190], which represented a courtyard off the Campo Santa Margherita, on the Calle San Barnaba, Venice. Whistler may have taken the drawing with him to Selsey Bill in Surrey (not Selsea) on the south coast of England or worked on it there.

Technique

Composition

Study for 'The Beggars' , photograph, LC PC

The Beggars - Winter, Freer Gallery of Art

This is one of two drawings, Study for 'The Beggars' and The Beggars - Winter m0727, related to an etching, The Beggars [190], which was started in Venice in 1879, but was radically changed during printing both in Venice and back in London.

History

Provenance

• 1881/1891: acquired by Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (b. ca 1829-d.1891);
• 1892: sold at auction, Hutchinson sale, Sotheby's, London, 3 March 1892 (lot 254) as 'The Beggars', and bought by 'Barr'.
• 1919: bought from Brown & Phillips, London, by Knoedler's, New York dealers;
• 1919: sold in March to Hunt Henderson (1869-1939), New Orleans.
• 1939: bought in May from Abigail Greene Aldrich, Mrs J. D. Rockefeller, Jr (1874-1948), by Knoedler's (#WC742);
• 1948: sold on 18 June to the Meredith Galleries, New York.
• 1961: with Kennedy, New York dealers.

It is possible this was drawn about the same time as Doorway in Ajaccio m1690, which may also have been owned by Hutchinson.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 864) as Study for 'The Beggars' (K.194)'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

SALE:

• Sotheby's, London, 3 March 1892 (lot 254) as 'The Beggars'.

Websites

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, on-line at http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.ukMargaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, website (cat. no. 190).