The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Erith – Evening dates from 1883/1884.

Erith – Evening, Freer Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 884).

Images

Subject

Site

Erith – Evening, Freer Gallery of Art

Erith, on the south bank of the River Thames, is a town in south-east London in the London Borough of Bexley.

Technique

Technique

Erith – Evening, Freer Gallery of Art

See technical details in Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.

History

Provenance

• 1883/1884: probably `a little evening of Erith - smoky "lurid" sky' which Whistler thought 'of no importance' and gave away, with Grey and silver - Pier, Southend m0890;
• 1884: bought from an old lady by Messrs Dowdeswell, London dealers, and probably returned to Whistler;
• 1884/1885: probably boughtthrough Dowdeswells by Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934), London;
• 1902: bought in June by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 884).

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 14) as 'Erith – Evening'.
• 1887: possibly Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 182) as 'Note en argent: Erith sur Tamise'.

By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to other venues.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 884) as 'Erith – Evening'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 14) as 'Erith - Evening'.
• Possibly Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 182) as 'Note en argent: Erith sur Tamise'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Exhibition', The Standard, London, 19 May 1884, p. 2.
• 'M.C.S.' [Malcolm Charles Salaman], Kensington News, London, 29 May 1884.

Books on Whistler

• Glazer, Lee, Emily Jacobson, Blythe McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor: Lovely Little Games, New Haven and London, 2019.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 186, pl. 108.
• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, p. 45 (cat. no. 20).

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1902.168a-c.
• Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.