The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sketch for a fan dates from 1894/1898.

Sketch for a fan, Freer Gallery of Art

It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1422).

Images

Subject

Description

Sketch for a fan, Freer Gallery of Art

A nude dancing, set within a circle.

Technique

Composition

Sketch for a fan, Freer Gallery of Art

Dancing girl, on a fan, Private Collection

This design was copied by Whistler on to one spoke of a fan; see Dancing girl, on a fan m1423.

Technique

The design was drawn in pencil, and worked over delicately in light red wash with a fine brush.

See technical details in Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.

Conservation History

The paper is browned, with a horizontal grain. It has a very uneven edge at left suggesting it was torn from a notebook.

History

Provenance

• 1899: given by Whistler to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, August 1899;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Due to the terms of Freer's will, 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. 1422).

Books on Whistler

• Calvert, Robyne, 'An Artistic Fan in Victorian Society', in Hermens, Erma and Joanna Meacock and Grischka Petri (eds), Connecting Whistler. Essays in Honour of Margaret F. MacDonald , pp. 35-41, repr. p. 36, online at https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_182035_en.pdf.
• Glazer, Lee, Emily Jacobson, Blythe McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor: Lovely Little Games, New Haven and London, 2019.

Websites

• Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.