The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Japanese Dress was probably started in the 1870s (he lived at 2 Lindsey Houses from 1866-1878) and reworked in the late 1880s.

The Japanese Dress, Davison Art Centre, Wesleyan University

Images

Subject

Sitter

Unidentified. Possibly one of the Pettgrew sisters, such as Harriet ('Hettie') Pettigrew (1869-1953).

Technique

Composition

The Japanese Dress, Davison Art Centre, Wesleyan University

If this was indeed started in the 1870s it must have been very thoroughly reworked, from another model, because it is typical of his work in the late 1880s and early 1890s.

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: bought from Dowdeswell's, London art dealers, by Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (b. ca 1829-d.1891);
• ca 1888: returned to Whistler for retouching;
• 1891: returned by Whistler to J. H. Hutchinson's widow, Louisa Henrietta Hutchinson (b. 1836/1837);
• 1891: bought by Howard Mansfield (1849-1938).
• Date unknown: with B. H. Hahlo & Co., New York dealers.
• 1934: probably deposited by Mrs C. J. Sullivan, New York, with W. Macbeth, New York dealer, 1934;
• 1935: bought by Edwin A. Seasongood (1876-1953), New York;
• 1951: sold at auction, Parke-Bernet, New York, 5 November 1951 (lot 301, repr.);
• 1952: given by George Willets Davison (1872-1953), Class of 1892, and his wife Harriet Baldwin Davison (1873-1953), to Wesleyan University.

The provenance is not entirely clear, particularly because it appears in early years to parallel the history of Design for a Mosaic m1226, and has been confused with that pastel. See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1227).

Exhibitions

• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 116) as 'The Japanese Dress'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1227) as 'The Japanese Dress'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 116) as 'The Japanese Dress'.

Books on Whistler

• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 175.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 181) repr.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003 (cat. no. 167) p. 175.

SALE:

• Parke-Bernet, New York, 5 November 1951 (lot 301, repr.).

Websites

• Davison Art Center website at http://dac-collection.wesleyan.edu.