The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Lily dates from 1870/1872. It has been dated from the form of the butterfly signature.

The Lily, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA.

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 364).

Images

Subject

Description

A draped figures crouching in profile to left, reaching down to a pot of white Lilies.

Sitter

Not identified.

Technique

Composition

The Lily, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA.

The White Symphony: Three Girls, Freer Gallery of Art

This may be related to the central figure in The White Symphony: Three Girls y087, although the figure is facing left instead of right.

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: according to Colnaghi's records, owned originally by Clementia 'Mentia' Taylor (1810-1908) née Doughty, widow of the MP, Peter Taylor (1819-1891);
• By 1905: passed by family descent to William Bernard Knobel (1875-1951).
• 1923: possibly with Agnews, London dealer, in December;
• 1924: bought from William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London dealer, by Knoedler, art dealers, London and New York, 4 February 1924 (L&P 7243; NY15844) and shared with Colnaghi, London art dealers, on 11 December (A3949);
• 1926: sent to Knoedlers, New York, on 26 January (#15844) and sold to James Carstairs III (1880-1958), Philadelphia, PA;
• Date unknown: passed to his daughter, Mrs Priscilla Carstairs Hirst, wife of William H. Hirst (1909-1991);
• 1958: after their divorce, Mrs Hirst sold the drawing.
• Date unknown: acquired by Whitney Warren Jr (1898-1986), San Francisco;
• 1987: bequeathed from the Estate of Whitney Warren Jr to the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Museums of San Francisco, in memory of Mrs Adolphe B. Spreckels.

The sequence of ownership is not entirely clear. The family relationships appear to be as follows: Clementia 'Mentia' Taylor (1810-1908) née Doughty, was the widow of Peter Taylor, MP (1819-1891). His brother Henry Taylor (b. 1831) married Emily Louisa Whitehead (1834-1898) in 1856. In 1869, Emily Whitehead's sister Margaret Robert Whitehead (1850-1922) married Edward Ball Knobel (1841-1930); their children included William Bernard Knobel (1875-1951) who married Ellen Rintoul in 1924 (she survived him). Mrs Whitehead's death in 1922 might have led to the sale of the drawing in 1923/1924.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 364); the record has been revised

Exhibitions

• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 95) as 'The Lily'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 364) as 'The Lily'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 95) as 'The Lily'.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, repr. p. 142.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Selections from the Bequest of Whitney Warren, Jr., California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1988-1989.
• Symphonies in Stone: Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, de Young, San Francisco, 1992.

• Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 1998, The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1998-1999.

Websites

• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco website at https://art.famsf.org.