The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sketch of 'Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel' may date from about 1879. It has not been located but is known from a reproduction by Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913). ¹

Sketch of 'Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel', Way 1912

Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel, Tate

It is a memory sketch, or a drawing of, or a study for, Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel y169, which dates from between 1875 and 1877; Whistler had access to the oil throughout the late 1870s and 1880s and it was exhibited frequently.

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 723).

Images

Subject

Site

Sketch of 'Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel', Way 1912

Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea, London.

Technique

Composition

Sketch of 'Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel', Way 1912

Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel, Tate

This is a memory sketch, or a drawing of, or a study for Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel y169, and shows the Firewheel looking much more conspicuous than it now appears.

History

Provenance

• ca 1879: acquired from the artist by Thomas Way (1837-1915) and passed to his son, Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913);
• Before 1910: bought from Way by Kennedy, New York dealers;
• 1912: owned by David A. Kennedy (fl. 1895-1915).

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 723) as "Sketch of 'Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel' ".

Books on Whistler

• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, repr. f.p. 20.