The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Portrait of John Ross Key dates from 1854 or 1855. It was given by Whistler to a fellow-draughtsman at the US Coast and Geodetic Survey in Washington DC, John Ross Key (1837-1920).

Portrait of John Ross Key, Freer Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 203).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Portrait of John Ross Key, Freer Gallery of Art

John Ross Key (1837-1920).

Technique

Technique

Portrait of John Ross Key, Freer Gallery of Art

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 203).

Conservation History

The paper has been folded and the edges are torn and abraded. There is a water-stain at centre left.

History

Provenance

• 1854/1855: given by Whistler to John Ross Key (1837-1920);
• 1908: bought in July by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 203).

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Due to the conditions of Freer's will, it cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 203) as 'Portrait of John Ross Key'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 209, pl. 146.

Websites

Freer Gallery of Art website at website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1908.200.