The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nude figure standing, holding a veil dates from March 1897.

Nude figure standing, holding a veil, Library of Congress

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1487).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Nude figure standing, holding a veil, Library of Congress

Unknown.

Technique

Composition

Nude figure standing, holding a veil, Library of Congress

Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl, Freer Gallery of Art

Study of nude figure looking right, Whereabouts unknown

The pose is somewhat similar to Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Little Blue Girl y421, which was still in Whistler's studio, and to another drawing Study of nude figure looking right m1488.

Technique

The figure was drawn with a sharp pencil, but softly. The scratchy, diagonal shading, the broken lines and multiple outlines give a nervous vitality to the drawing.

Conservation History

It is on shiny notepaper, possibly taken from a notebook. The right edge has been neatly torn rather than cut. Tears along the top edge have been repaired, but there is a brown stain along the lower edge.

History

Provenance

• 1897: possibly given by Whistler to Joseph Pennell (1860-1926);
• 1921: given by Joseph and Elizabeth Robins Pennell (1855-1936) to the Library of Congress.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1487).

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. 1487) as 'Nude figure standing, holding a veil.

Websites

• Library of Congress website at https://www.loc.gov.