The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A woman playing cards (Pelouze's Album, p. 103) dates from between 1851 and 1853. The album belonged to a fellow West Point cadet, Louis Henry Pelouse (1831-1878).

A woman playing cards, Pelouze's Album, p. 103, Colby College Museum of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 91). The history of this work has been updated.

Images

Subject

Sitter

A woman playing cards, Pelouze's Album, p. 103, Colby College Museum of Art

This was probably drawn from imagination to illustrate a romantic tale.

Technique

Conservation History

A woman playing cards, Pelouze's Album, p. 103, Colby College Museum of Art

This is one of several sketches drawn by Whistler in an album for a fellow West Point cadet, Louis Henry Pelouse (1831-1878).

History

Provenance

• 1851/1853: drawn for Louis Henry Pelouse (1831-1878);
• 1878-after 1995: passed by family descent to his wife, Ellen Letitia Doolittle Pelouze (1836-1916), his son, Louis Henri Pelouze (1863-1939), and his great-nephew.
• 2013: given by Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) and Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933) to Colby College Museum of Art, Maine.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 88).

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, 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. 91) as 'A woman playing cards (Pelouze's Album, p. 103)'.

Websites

• Colby College Museum of Art website at https://www.colby.edu/museum.