The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall dates from 1883/1884.

Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall, Thomas Colville Fine Art

This work was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 921). Subject and History have been updated.

Images

Subject

Site

Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall, Thomas Colville Fine Art

The Globe Inn, a public house, with figures sitting along Doble's wall, which protected the pub from the encroaching sea; attached to the Globe Inn was a 'pent-house,' (a lean-to). The pub was in the town of St Ives in Cornwall, south-west England. It is currently (2017) a takeaway.

Technique

Technique

Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall, Thomas Colville Fine Art

According to Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) it was done from memory, 'It was painted under my eyes, after we had spent the preceding evening studying the scene from Nature - a little lean-to, tiled pent-house roof outside a public house in the central place of the town.' ¹

History

Provenance

• 1883/1884; given by Whistler to Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942);
• ca 1905: sold to Edgar J. Hesslein (1864-1938), art dealer, New York;
• Date unknown: said to have been sold to Paul Verdier (1874-1945), San Francisco, CA.
• 1958: said to have been bought from the City of Paris Art Gallery, San Francisco, by Ms Lathrop, Carson City, Nevada, and passed to her son, Paul Lathrop;
• 1983: bought by Robert Abbott, Cottage Grove, Oregon;
• 1985: sold to Byron Baker and partners, Eugene, Oregon.
• 2012: sold at auction, Christie's, New York, 25 September 2012 (lot 51).
• By 2018: Thomas Colville Fine Art, New Haven and New York.

The sequence of ownership, as provided by the recent (since 1983) owners and Christie's, is not entirely clear. See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 921); this record has been updated.

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. 921) as 'Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

SALE:

• Christie's, New York, 25 September 2012 (lot 51).

Journals 1906-Present

• Sickert, Walter R., letter to the editor, 'The Works of Whistler', New Age, vol. 10, 29 February 1912, p. 431, no. 18.

Websites

• Thomas Colville Fine Art website.
• Christie's, New York, 25 September 2012, website.
• 'Pubs in St Ives, Cornwall', Pints and Pubs from beer to eternity, 3 July 2017, Blog.