The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

M.0126
Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat

Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1853
Collection: Private Collection
Accession Number: none
Medium: pen, brown ink, pencil and printed text
Support: off-white wove paper, from 'Sketches in Elements of Geometry and Trigonometry from the Works of A. M. Legendre revised and adapted to the course of mathematical instruction in the United States by Charles Davies, LL.D.', published by A. S. Barnes & Co., New York, 1851. Boards 211 x 128 (8 5/16 x 5), only covers and frontispiece extant.
Size: (a) 8 1/16 x 4 13/16; (b) 8 1/16 x 5"; (a) 205 x 122mm; (b) 205 x 128 mm)
Signature: 'Whistler' and 'J. Whistler.'
Inscription: various notes and bets including, 'That Whistler will not put three drawings/ in Webb's album on specified pages within /14 days- Stakes one treat at Joe's to be/ paid on l5th day - June 4th - /l85[illeg]./ De l'Enfant arbiter- Instantor / constantor?] & Scribe/ Signed by dr Alex. S. Webb/ Interested wittness. J.Whistler." ' and on the title page, by the hand of F. L. Childs, 'This book was reduced to its present state by J. Whistler.'

Date

Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat dates from about June 1853 when Whistler was at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Alexander Stewart Webb (1835-1911) was a fellow cadet and Frederick Lynn Childs (1831-1894), nicknamed 'L'Enfant', was Whistler's room-mate.

Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat, Private Collection
Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat, Private Collection

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 126).

Images

Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat, Private Collection
Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat, Private Collection

Subject

Description

Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat, Private Collection
Childs' Geometry book: (a) Spider's web, surveying instruments and man with lorgnette; (b) Man wearing a top hat, Private Collection

The fragmentary sketches on the left sheet include a spider's web (at upper left), surveying instruments (centre left) and a man with a lorgnette, lower right. On the title page is a drawing of a man wearing a top hat, in profile to left, and a small diagram, basically a pentagon with extended sides.

Sitter

Not identified, possibly a visitor to West Point.

Technique

Technique

It is difficult to identify the authors of these sketches, given that several cadets contributed to the notes and bets recorded. It is likely that Whistler drew the man's head, with its battered top hat.

History

Provenance

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 126).

Exhibitions

As far as is known, it was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

Notes: