The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Mathematics dates from between 1852 and 1853 and was given to Thomas de Kay Winans (1820-1878) or his family.

Mathematics, Metropolitan Museum of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 97).

Images

Subject

Site

Mathematics, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The United States Military Academy at West Point, where Whistler excelled at drawing but not at mathematics.

Technique

Conservation History

The drawing was originally stuck into an album.

History

Provenance

• 1853/1854: given to Thomas de Kay Winans (1820-1878) and family;
• 1878-1970: passed by family descent to his daughter Celeste Marguerite Winans (Mrs G. M. Hutton) (1855-1925), her daughter Lucette Marguerite Hutton, Mrs H. A. Prichard (1885-1957), and grand-daughters, Margaret Celeste Prichard, Mrs T. A. Buell (1908-1970), Helen Lucette Prichard, Mrs J. M. King (1913-2005), and Sybil Agnes Prichard, Mrs E. G. Walk (1915-2009);
• 1970: given by Margaret C. Buell, Helen L. King, and Sybil A. Walk to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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. 97) as 'Mathematics'.

Websites

• Metropolitan Museum website