The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck dates from 1876/1878. It is a preliminary study for an illustration in a catalogue of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894), published in 1878. ¹

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 618).

Images

Subject

Description

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

A sketch of a vase, with a vertical central line drawn to aid in making it symmetrical.

The Thompson catalogue described the subject as one of two similar vases:

'Pair of Vases, with slightly bulging bodies and expanding necks. On one a band of six musicians, with female dancing on a carpet, in the presence of lady of rank seated at a table, with two attendants at her side: round the neck, bamboo leaves and ornamental band: round the foot a running leaf pattern. On the other vase, a mandarin or person of rank, seated at a table in a pavilion surrounded by warriors and attendants, is addressing a sage who, standing in front of a table, is apparently inscribing upon a scroll the words addressed to him: without, a warrior carrying a standard attended by another bearing an offering: round the neck, bamboo leaves and ornamental bands: round the foot running leaf pattern. Mark, Ta Ming Ching-hwa nien chi. A.D. 1465-1468. Height, 10 inches.' ²

This is the second vase described above, showing, at upper left, the mandarin sitting at a table, but details are only roughly indicated.

Technique

Composition

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck, Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck, Glasgow Museums

This is a preliminary study for Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck m0619.

History

Provenance

• 1876/1878: given to Murray Marks (1840-1918), London art dealer;
• 1879: 29 preliminary drawings, 'sketches of blue and white vases, in the collection of Sir H. Thompson' were sold at auction, London, Christie, 7 February 1879 (lot 534) and bought by Pickford Robert Waller (1849-1930) for 1 guinea;
• 1930: bequeathed to his daughter Sybil Christina Waller (1882-1973);
• 1965: 29 drawings were sold at Christie's, London, 12 November 1965 (lot 32A), bought by Julius H. Weitzner (1896-1986), London dealer; ³
• 1969: sold by Knoedler's, New York dealers, to the Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute on 19 May 1969.

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. 618) as 'Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck'.

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, final design (74) repr. pl. XII.