The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Large Bowl and Cover dates from 1876/1878. It is an illustration in a catalogue of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894). ¹

The small butterfly was added in 1893.

Large Bowl and Cover, Glasgow Museums

The drawing is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 605).

Images

Subject

Description

Large Bowl and Cover, Glasgow Museums

The Thompson catalogue described this subject as:

'No. 29. A Large Shaped Bowl and Cover, with silver mounts. On the body two panels, one representing a male figure presenting petition to a person of rank who holds a flower, behind him a chair and a table with embroidered cover, in front of which stands an attendant with a large raised fan or banner, and another holding a scroll; on either side warriors. On the other panel a man seated on a stool: behind him an attendant conversing with an official who is seated at a table on which are writing materials; in front a man presenting offering. The panels divided by symbolical ornaments. Round the neck a band of fret ornament surmounted by dots; on the cover boys playing amongst the rocks; round the edge a fret ornament, dots below. Painted in brilliant blue. Mark, double ring. Height, 10 ½ inches.' ²

Whistler illustrated the second of these scenes.

Technique

Composition

Large Bowl and Cover, Glasgow Museums

Large Bowl and Cover, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

This is an illustration for Plate IV, Thompson 1878 [more]. There is one preliminary drawing, Large Bowl and Cover m0604.

History

Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879: possibly sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-533), and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930) (see Cylindrical Jar m0594).
• 1893: probably acquired by Deprez and Gutekunst, London dealers;
• 1893: signed by Whistler at the request of the New York dealer Max Williams (d. 1928), and offered to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) of Detroit; ³
• 1893: Freer bought one, Vase with slightly bulging body m0617, and the remainder were sold by Deprez and Gutekunst to Williams;
• 1904: in September Max Williams sold eleven drawings to Col. Robert James Bennet (1843-1916), Glasgow; ⁴
• 1905: on 24 February John Craibe Angus (1861-1910), Glasgow art dealer, submitted eleven drawings to Joseph Pennell (1860-1926);
• 1905: returned by Pennell to Craibe Angus, and sold at some time to a Scottish collector.
• 1925: given by Robert Douglas MacGregor (1850-1934) of Wiston Lodge, Lamington, Lanarkshire, to Glasgow City Art Gallery (now Glasgow Museums).

Exhibitions

• 1878: A Catalogue of Blue and White Porcelain forming the collection of Sir Henry Thompson, Murray Marks gallery, London, 1878.

The porcelain, the final drawings, and the newly published catalogue, were exhibited in Murray Marks's shop in London, the private view being held on 30 April 1878.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 605) as 'Large Bowl and Cover'.

Authored by Whistler

• Thompson, Sir Henry, A Catalogue of Blue and White Nankin Porcelain Forming the Collection of Sir Henry Thompson. Illustrated ... from Drawings by James Whistler ... and Sir Henry Thompson, London, 1878 (cat. no. 29) repr. pl. IV.