The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Beatrice Whistler looking at her birds dates from 1894.

Beatrice Whistler looking at her birds, The Hunterian

The drawing is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1398) dated '1893/5'.

Images

Subject

Site

The garden behind Whistler's House, 110 Rue du Bac, Paris.

Sitter

Beatrice Whistler looking at her birds, The Hunterian

Beatrice Philip (Mrs E. W. Godwin, Mrs J. McN. Whistler) (1857-1896).

Technique

Technique

Beatrice Whistler looking at her birds, The Hunterian

This was intended as a lithograph but never completed or transferred to a lithographic stone for printing.

Conservation History

This is a sheet of papier végétal paper, obtained from the Paris printer Lemercier & Cie. The drawing is on the gummed side, ready for transfer to a lithographic stone. ¹

History

Provenance

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

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, 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. 1398) as 'Beatrice Whistler looking at her birds'.
• 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, 'Untransferred Lithographic Drawings', pp. 509-11 (cat. no. XII), repr. p. 511.

Websites

• The Hunterian website at http://collections.gla.ac.uk.