The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck dates from 1876/1878. It is an illustration for a catalogue of the collection of Henry Thompson (1820-1894), published in 1878. ¹ The small butterfly was added in 1893.

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck, Glasgow Museums

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 619).

Images

Subject

Description

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck, Glasgow Museums

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.

Technique

Composition

Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck, Glasgow Museums

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

This is an illustration for Plate XII, Thompson 1878 [more]. There is one preliminary study, Vase with slightly bulging body and expanding neck m0618.

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. 619) 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, pp. 15-16 (cat. no. 74) repr. pl. XII.

Catalogues 1855-1905

EXHIBITION:

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

SALE:

• Possibly Christie's, London, 7 February 1879 (lots 527-533).