The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Annabel Lee dates from 1885/1887.

Annabel Lee, Freer Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1077).

Images

Subject

Titles

Annabel Lee, Freer Gallery of Art

The titles 'Annabel Lee' and 'Niobe' were associated with this pastel, but not in Whistler's lifetime. See Annabel Lee y079 and Sketch for 'Annabel Lee' y080.

It is possible that Annabel Lee is actually Harmony in Opal and Violet m1075, and has nothing to do with the poem Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849).

Technique

Technique

Annabel Lee, Freer Gallery of Art

See discussion in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1077).

History

Provenance

• Before 1887: acquired from the artist by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
• 1887: borrowed by Whistler but returned to Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913);
• 1905: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, July 1905;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1077).

Exhibitions

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

On 2 December 1885 the Echo commented on two pastel 'seaside' sketches by Whistler then on exhibition at the Society of British Artists. One of them may have been this pastel. The titles of pastels shown at that time include Grey and Silver m1069 and Harmony in Opal and Violet m1075. It is possible that Annabel Lee is actually Harmony in Opal and Violet.

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. 1077) as 'Annabel Lee'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly Winter Exhibition, Society of British Artists, London, 1885 (cat. no. 566) as 'Harmony in Opal and Violet'.
• 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. 63) as 'Annabel Lee', repr. f.p. 84.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• [British Artists], Echo, London, 2 December 1885.

Journals 1855-1905

• Wedmore, Frederick, 'The Society of British Artists', Academy, vol. 28, 19 December 1885, p. 417.

Books on Whistler

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, p. 267, fig. 7.2.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 98.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 29, 107, 243, pl. 215.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1905.129a-b.