The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Studies of heads and of the Château at Chenonceau dates from the autumn of 1888. James and Beatrice Whistler were on their honeymoon and may have been staying in Tours. In his draft letter to the Royal Society of British Artists,Whistler described himself as 'under the very walls of Chenonceau - the Kingly Chateau of Francis I.' ¹ Otherwise the letter is not related to the drawing.

Studies of heads and of the Château at Chenonceau, Glasgow University Library

The drawing is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1182). The entry has been revised.

Images

Subject

Site

Studies of heads and of the Château at Chenonceau, Glasgow University Library

Whistler was writing, he said, 'under the very walls of Chenonceau - the Kingly Chateau of Francis I...' The Château de Chenonceau spans the River Cher, near the village of Chenonceaux in the Indre-et-Loire département of the Loire Valley in France.

Two of the sketches may be studies for the etching Château Touraine [410].

However it is not certain if the subject is actually the Château de Chenonceau. In the sketch, which is the actual view (the etching being reversed in printing) the tower is to right of a taller building or wall and to left of the lower two-storey building, and the steps in front are more clearly defined.

In 1864, Daniel Wilson, a Scotsman who had made a fortune installing gaslights in Paris, bought the Château de Chenonceau for his daughter. She held lavish parties until the money ran out and the château was seized. It was sold to José-Emilio Terry, a Cuban millionaire, in 1891 and he sold it in 1896 to a relation, Francisco Terry. This would fit with the run-down appearance of the building. However, the main Château de Chenonceau is a spectacular building surrounded by a moat, and reached by a bridge, and it is not clear where in the garden or grounds Whistler could have got such a view. The building drawn and etched by Whistler looks more like a substantial house, estate buildings or stables rather than the main château.

Technique

Composition

Studies of heads and of the Château at Chenonceau, Glasgow University Library

Two of the sketches may be studies for the etching Château Touraine [410].

Technique

There are several character studies of a man with a hooked nose, and one carefully modelled drawing of a man looking down, which might be a self-portrait, or may have been drawn by Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896).

Conservation History

The sheet has been torn in half, and is dirty.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1955: given to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

There is no record of an exhibition 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. 1182) as 'Studies of heads and of the Château at Chenonceau'.

Websites

• The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, edited by Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp; including The Correspondence of Anna McNeill Whistler, 1855-1880, edited by Georgia Toutziari. Online edition, University of Glasgow, 2003-2004, GUW #05325.
• Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online website (G. 410).