The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop dates from between 1888 and 1889. ¹

Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop, Terra Foundation for American Art

It is dated from the technique, and obviously dates from before its first exhibition by Whistler in his Retrospective Exhibition, College for Working Men and Women, London, 1889.

Images

Subject

Titles

Possible titles include:

• 'Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop' (1889, The Echo). ²
• 'Shop Front, Soho' (1965, Knoedler's). ³
• 'Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop' (1980, YMSM). ⁴

The description published in The Echo, 20 May 1889, is the only source of information on the early history of this oil, and appears to fit this panel more closely than any of the other sweet shop subjects painted by Whistler (Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop y263 or An Orange Note: Sweet Shop y264, although the latter is a possible alternative). It implies that the painting had been exhibited earlier in the 1880s but it cannot be identified with certainty with any earlier title. The title given in The Echo is probably not Whistler's, or at least, not his full title for the panel.

Description

Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop, Terra Foundation for American Art

A street scene in horizontal format. It shows a small shop, with a broad multi-paned window stacked with goods at left. In front of it, just to left of centre and of the narrow doorway, is a slender pillar supporting some sort of balcony or upper storey. There are two children standing in the door, which appears to have clothes hanging on each side. Further right is a narrow sash window, with a green-painted wooden shutter, wide open, reaching the right edge of the panel. In front of this window is a grey cupboard or table.

Site

If the title is accurate, the shop was in London, UK.

It has been suggested that it was painted in Cornwall, but, given the date, this is unlikely. ⁵

Comments

The Terra website comments:

'In this work, Whistler used the modest shop front to explore the boundaries between representation and pure design. His subject’s quaintly irregular architecture, with its dense rectilinear geometry of painted walls and shutter, glazed windows, and open door, presents a variety of surface materials and textures and an interplay of solids and voids. At the center of the composition, the sketchy forms of two children in the doorway subtly animate the scene just as the bright note of red sets off the subdued hues of the roughened exterior. Thinly painted in dryly brushed, semi-transparent glazes and presented close-up and head-on, the building’s façade threatens to dissolve from an illusionistic “picture” of a shop front into an abstract, grid-like design on the flat surface of the panel.' ⁶

Technique

Technique

Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop, Terra Foundation for American Art

It is thinly painted on a grey primed panel. The Terra Foundation website described it as 'Thinly painted in dryly brushed, semi-transparent glazes'. ⁷ The rather dry brushwork does not in the least detract from the dark, intensely rich colours.

Conservation History

Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop, photograph, 1980

Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop, Terra Foundation for American Art

An old photograph does not show any radical changes; it was probably taken with a different film or lighting that made it appear brighter than it is. The edges appear to be very slightly abraded.

History

Provenance

• 1925/35: bought from W. O'Leary, Detroit art dealer, by John L. Robertson (dates unknown), Scranton, PA;
• By 1972: passed to his daughter, Mrs Jean Maloney (dates unknown) (Mrs Robert Walter Maloney, Jr);
• 1972/1978: sold by her to Hirschl & Adler, New York dealers;
• By 1978: sold by them to Agnew's, London dealers;
• 1979: sold by them to D'Offay, London dealer;
• 1979: with Hazlitt, Gooden & Fox, London dealers;
• 1979: sold by them to Dr John Larkin (n/a), White Bear Lake, MN;
• 1985: sold by Knoedler-Modarco, New York, to Daniel J. Terra (1911-1996), IL;
• 1992: Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, IL;
• By 2005: Terra Foundation for the Arts collection on extended loan to the Art Institute of Chicago.

The first known owner, William O'Leary, wrote an article on Whistler in 1889 and it is possible he bought the painting around that time. ⁸

Exhibitions

• 1889: Retrospective Exhibition, College for Working Men and Women, London, 1889 (no catalogue).

In 1889 the art critic of The Echo wrote, ' "Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop," a tiny bit of most precious colour, is a well-remembered gem – just a bit of wall, an old village shop window, with oranges and sweets, a door and two children's figures.' ⁹ This description does not entirely tally with the work: there are two children in the doorway and although there are no obvious oranges, or, for that matter, sweets, the painting is probably darker than it was in 1889. The Echo implies that the painting had been exhibited earlier in the 1880s but it cannot be identified with certainty with any earlier title.

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. 375), plate 223, as 'Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Retrospective Exhibition, College for Working Men and Women, London, 1889 (no catalogue).

Newspapers 1855-1905

• The Echo, London, 20 May 1889.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Carlyle's Sweetstuff Shop, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Collection Cameo sheet, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, January 1994, repr.

EXHIBITION:

• 18th, 19th, and 20th Century American Painting and Sculpture, M. Knoedler & Company, New York, 1965 (cat. no. 53) as 'Shop Front, Soho'.
• Spink, Nesta, Whistler: The Later Years, University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, 1978 (cat. no. 36) as 'Shop Front, Soho'.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, 1984 (cat. no. 94).
• Atkinson, D. Scott et al., A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1987, p. 147, Pl. T-38.
• Selections from the Permanent Collection: Americans at Home and Abroad, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1987.
• An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1988.
• Whistler and His Circle, Minnesota Museum of Art, St Paul, Minnesota, 1989.
• Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1994.
• Regard sur James Abbott McNeill Whistler (James Abbott McNeill Whistler at a Glance), Musée d'Art Américain, Giverny, 1994.
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 158).
• Un regard américain sur Paris (An American Glance at Paris), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, 1997.
• Regard sur cinq années d'expositions (Five years of Exhibitions at a Glance), Terra Foundation for the Arts, Chicago, 1997, repr. p. 72.
• The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1999.
• Figures and Forms: Selections from the Terra Foundation for the Arts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2000.
• New Faces, New Places: Recent Additions to the Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2000.
• Selections from the Permanent Collection: Two Centuries of American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2001.
• A Place on the Avenue: Terra Museum of American Art Celebrates 15 Years in Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2002-2003.
• Modern Harmonies: Whistler Reflects on his Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2003.
• Studied Abroad: Painted Impressions from the Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 2003-2004.
• Expanded Galleries of American Art with Loans from the Terra Foundation for American Art Collection, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 2005.
• A Good Night, Falmouth Art Gallery, Cornwall, 2019.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Terra Foundation website at http://collection.terraamericanart.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 347).

Other

• None.