The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Studies of poppies dates from about 1886.

Studies of poppies, Private Collection

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1109). The provenance has been updated.

Images

Subject

Description

The only one of Whistler's flower studies to have survived: a sheet of studies of poppies in shades or red white and purple.

Technique

Technique

Studies of poppies, Private Collection

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1109)

Conservation History

The paper is a little fragile, and there are minor paper losses at corners, plus some small pinholes.

History

Provenance

• 1886 or after: given by Whistler, according to a label, to Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942).
• By 1907: owned by Albert Eugene Gallatin (1882-1952);
• In or after 1952: passed by family descent to Catherine Gallatin Nichols;
• Date unknown: owned by a private collector;
• 1986: sold at auction, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 29 May 1886 (lot 143, repr.);
• 1986: bought by Hirschl and Adler, New York dealers:
• 1991: at auction, Sotheby's, New York, 5 December 1991 (lot 31) bought in;
• 1994: bought by The Fine Art Society, London.
• Date unknown: Garden Museum Collection, Matsue, Japan;
• Date unknown: Private Collection, Alameda, CA;
• 2012: sold at auction, Michaan's Auctions, Alameda, CA, 1 December 2012 (lot 2029).
• By 2015: Private Collection, New York.

Exhibitions

• 1886: possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. unknown).

There is no record of an exhibition in Whistler's lifetime, but it is likely that it was exhibited by Messrs Dowdeswell in 1886 or later in the 1880s.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1109) as 'Studies of poppies'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. unknown).

Books on Whistler

• Gallatin, Albert Eugene, Whistler, Notes and Footnotes, and other Memoranda, New York and London, 1907, repr. p. 29.

Books, General

• Duncan, Alastair, Louis C. Tiffany, The Garden Museum Collection, Antique Collectors Club Limited, Old Martlesham, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2004, repr. p. 651.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Modern Paintings, Drawings, etc, from the Collection of A. E. Gallatin for the Benefit of the American War Relief, Bourgeois Galleries, New York, 1916.

Websites

• 'Tiffany Garden Museum Collection Fine Art Selections', Michaans Auctions, Alameda, CA, 1 December 2012, website.