The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.1377
A woman holding a black fan
Date
A woman holding a black fan dates from about 1893.
A woman holding a black fan, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1377).
Images
A woman holding a black fan, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
The Dancing Girl, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (acc. no. 1943.3.8690)
Subject
Sitter
A woman holding a black fan, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow
The model has not been identified.
Technique
Composition
A woman holding a black fan, The Hunterian
The Dancing Girl, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC (acc. no. 1943.3.8690)
The figure is similar to that in the 1889 lithograph The Dancing Girl c029, but is not a study for that print.
Technique
A woman holding a black fan, The Hunterian
The use of line is similar to that seen in lithographs, particularly in the flow of the drapery. The blurring of the outline of the figure by short diagonal lines is curious. There are signs of pentimenti, showing that the shoulder was originally higher, and the skirt may have been lower.
It seems either to have been radically altered, or to have been drawn over another drawing. There are faint vertical lines and touches of grey, light red and orange to right of the body, and lines below and to left of the skirt, which seem unrelated to the main drawing. The original figure would have been on a larger scale.
Conservation History
The paper, a lightish brown, fibrous, has tiny wood flecks and a slight chequered grain.
History
Provenance
- 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death in 1903 and bequeathed to his sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
- 1935: given by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.
Exhibitions
As far as is known, it was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.
By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's Gift, 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. 1377) as 'A woman holding a black fan'.
Books on Whistler
- Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998 (lithograph, cat. no. 29) repr. p. 137.
Websites
- The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.