The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

M.1076
Harmony in Blue and Violet

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1885/1888
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1890.8a-b
Medium: chalk and pastel
Support: brown wove paper, laid down
Size: 10 13/16 x 7 1/6" (275 x 179 mm)
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: v.: 'Harmony in Blue & Violet', 'J. McNeill Whistler' and butterfly

Date

Harmony in Blue and Violet dates from 1885/1888.

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1076).

Images

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

Note in Violet and Green, Freer Gallery of Art

Subject

Sitter

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

Note in Violet and Green, Freer Gallery of Art

The same model, in the same colours, appears to have posed for Note in Violet and Green m1074 when it was being re-drawn. The similarity is so close that it is possible they were exhibited together at the SBA in 1885-1886, and that Harmony in Blue and Violet is Harmony in Opal and Violet m1075.

Technique

Technique

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1076).

Frame

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

History

Provenance

1890: sold by Whistler to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, on 4 March;
1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions

Harmony in Blue and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

1885: possibly Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 566) as 'Harmony in Opal and Violet'.

It is possible that Harmony in Blue and Violet and Note in Violet and Green m1074 were exhibited together at the SBA in 1885-1886, and that Harmony in Blue and Violet is Harmony in Opal and Violet m1075.

NOTE: By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1076) as 'Harmony in Blue and Violet'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

Possibly Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 566) as 'Harmony in Opal and Violet'.

Books on Whistler

Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington, DC, and London, 1995, p. 54, pl. 6.

Catalogues 1906-Present

Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 270, pl. 268.

Websites

Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1890.8a-b.

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