Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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A Distant Dome

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

  • 'A Distant Dome' (1960, Arts Council). 1
  • 'A Distant Dome' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

A Distant Dome, The Hunterian
A Distant Dome, The Hunterian

A landscape in horizontal format, with a view of a city from a green hill that crosses the foreground in a diagonal from upper left to the lower right corner. Several figures are walking on a path that winds down the hill, just to right of centre. In the middle distance, at left, is a large pillared building crowned with a lantern above the dome, while to right are buildings and either a tall column or chimney. The sky is cloudy, with touches of pale blue.

Site

The dome of Ajaccio cathedral – Cathédrale Notre-Dame de l'Assomption de Ajaccio, also known as the Cathédrale de l'Assomption de Sainte-Marie – is depicted from the hill of Salerio near the Parc Balestrino, Ajaccio, Corsica.

Whistler kept two sketchbooks showing people and views in Ajaccio. 3 He painted at least one portrait, A Corsican Child [YMSM 544], and etched subjects in the city, such as Bohemians [486], Sleeping Child, Ajaccio (G.488) and Flaming Forge (G.490).

Notes:

1: Young, A. McLaren, James McNeill Whistler, Arts Council Gallery, London, and Knoedler Galleries, New York, 1960 (cat. no. 76).

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 545).

3: Sketchbook [M.1666] and Sketchbook [M.1693].

Last updated: 2nd November 2020 by Margaret