The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Monk reading dates from 1853/1854, and was given to a fellow West Point cadet, Arthur Kerr Leigh (1835-1864), who, like Whistler, failed to graduate.

Monk reading, St Louis Art Museum

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1423).

Images

Subject

Description

The subject is a monk sitting at a table, facing the viewer, lit from a wondow at left. It is a copy of an unidentified print.

Technique

Composition

J. Whistler, Monk reading, St Louis Art Museum

According to Charles Troubridge Larned (d. 1882), this was copied from a print frequently used by Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889) for the instruction of Cadets. ¹

J. C. Duane, Monk reading, USMA, West Point

The print copied by Whistler was the source for another painting now at West Point, by James Chatham Duane (1824-1897) of the class of 1848, who was an Instructor at West Point during Whistler's time there. Duane's drawing is slightly larger than Whistler's (338 x 442 mm) and, although browned and cracked, but with a range of colours similar to that seen in Whistler's picture.

A series of prints of monastic subjects were used as models for Weir's classes. Copies of these done in 1845 by Delos B. Sacket (1822-1865) of the class of '45, and in 1847 by Walter H. Stevens (1827-1867), class of '48, are in the collection at West Point.

Conservation History

The paper is now badly browned, cracked and torn, with some paper loss at the upper right corner.

History

Provenance

• 1853/1854: given to a fellow West Point cadet, Arthur Kerr Leigh (1835-1864);
• 1864: Leigh died of yellow fever in Galverston, Texas.
• 1923: given on 5 January by William Keeney Bixby (1857-1931) to St Louis Art Museum.

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. 142) as 'Monk reading'.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 32.