The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

r.: A group of figures; v.: Figure dates from 1867/1869.

r.: A group of figures; v.: Figure, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 341).

Images

Subject

Description

r.: A group of figures, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Recto: Six draped standing women and one seated figure are looking over or leaning on railings, as if on a bridge or balcony.

v.: Figure, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Verso: a nude woman standing facing the viewer.

Technique

Composition

r.: A group of figures, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Study of Draped Figures, The Hunterian

The composition may be related to Study of Draped Figures y058.

Conservation History

r.: A group of figures, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

v.: Figure, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

It was torn up by the artist but retrieved and roughly repaired by Thomas Way (1837-1915) or his son Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913).

History

Provenance

• 1870s: torn up by Whistler but retrieved by Thomas Way (1837-1915) or his son Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), London;
• 1913: probably bought from Way or his widow by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930);
• 1930: bequeathed to his daughter Sybil Christina Waller (1882-1973);
• 1965: sold by her at auction, Christie's, London, 12 November 1965 and bought by Knoedler, New York dealers (WCA 3549 #8);
• 1969: bought by Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute on 19 May 1969.

Exhibitions

There is no record of an exhibition 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. 341) as 'r.: A group of figures; v.: Figure'.
• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 58) ref., oil.