The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sketch of a composition was drawn in a letter from Algernon Graves (1845-1922) to Whistler dated 11 December 1890. ¹ The drawing is not related to the letter.

Sketch of a composition, Glasgow University Library

The drawing is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1314).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Not identified.

Technique

Composition

Sketch of a composition, Glasgow University Library

The sketch is very faint and incomplete: it may represent figures on a balcony, one reclining at left, and one standing to her right. It is more like a subject from the 1860s or '70s, such as Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony y056, than Whistler's work in the 1890s.

History

Provenance

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

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited 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. 1314) as 'Sketch of a composition'.

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 #01831.