The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sunset, Venice dates from 1880. ¹

According to the American artist Robert Goodloe Harper Pennington (1854 or 1855-d. 1920), who was with Whistler in Venice in September 1880 and saw him painting 'small canvases' there: 'There was an upright sunset ... looking from my little terrace on the Riva degli Schiavoni over towards San Giorgio – and others that I saw him work on in 1880.' ²

Images

Subject

Titles

One title has been suggested:

• 'Sunset, Venice' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

A sunset view looking across the water to the island dominated by the tower and church of San Giorgio Maggiore. Harper Pennington described it as in vertical format. ⁴

Site

A view from the Riva degli Schiavoni towards San Giorgio Maggiore on the island of San Giorgio, Venice, Italy.

Venice, Freer Gallery of Art

Nocturne - San Giorgio, Freer Gallery of Art

Whistler drew many views in Venice that included the magnificent church of San Giorgio Maggiore, but they are in horizontal format. His pastels of San Giorgio include Venice m0802, Nocturne - San Giorgio m0803, The Church of San Giorgio Maggiore m0805 and San Biagio; flesh-colour and grey m0818. His etchings of the same subject include San Giorgio [214] and Nocturne [222].

Technique

Technique

Unknown.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

Unknown.

Exhibitions

Unknown.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 220) as 'Sunset, Venice'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 272.
• Pennell 1911Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 5th (revised) edition, London and Philadelphia, 1911, p. 200.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, p. 30.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 98?).

Other

• None.