The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Riva, Venice; v.: Heads and hats date from 1879/1880.

Riva, Venice, Cleveland Museum of Art

v.: Heads and hats, Cleveland Museum of Art

The drawings are fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 734).

Images

Subject

Site

Riva, Venice, Cleveland Museum of Art

The Riva degli Schiavoni on the north side of the Canale di San Marco, Venice, Italy. Two etchings, The Riva [229] and Riva, No. 2 [230], show roughly the same view in reverse.

Technique

Technique

Riva, Venice, Cleveland Museum of Art

The lines are curiously tentative, broken, and unconvincing. This may be a very early sketch for a pastel, but it is not like Whistler's usual work. ¹

History

Provenance

• 1880/1892: possibly acquired by Joshua Hutchinson Hutchinson (b. ca 1829-d.1891);
• 1892: possibly sold, Hutchinson collection, Sotheby's, London, 3 March 1892 (lot 247) as 'The Riva', and bought by Frederick Keppel (1845-1912), art dealer.
• 1911: possibly sold at auction, Christie's, London, 7 February 1911 (lot 174) as 'The Riva No. 2' and bought by Parsons, London art dealer.
• 1919: possibly sold at auction, Sotheby's, London, 3 November 1919 (lot 78A), and bought by Max Williams (d. 1928);
• 1920: sold at auction, AAA, New York, 19 February 1920 (lot 153);
• 1921: said to have been owned by Mitchell Kennerly (1878-1950), New York;
• 1921/1925: possibly with V. G. Fischer, art dealer, Washington, DC.
• 1949: given by Henry Sayles Francis (1902-1994) and his wife Frances Meriam Francis (née Burrage) (d. 1989) to the Cleveland Museum of Art.

The provenance before 1920 is uncertain. See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 734).

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. 734) as 'Riva, Venice; v.: Heads and hats'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

SALES:

• Possibly Hutchinson collection, Sotheby's, London, 3 March 1892 (lot 247) as 'The Riva'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITIONS:

• America Draws, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1984-1985.
• The View from Afar: Whistler and the Japanese Print, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, 1988.

SALES:

• Possibly Christie's, London, 7 February 1911 (lot 174) as 'The Riva No. 2'.
• Possibly Sotheby's, London, 3 November 1919 (lot 78A) as 'Original Sketch for the Etching Riva No, 2'.
• AAA, New York, 19 February 1920 (lot 153).

Websites

• Cleveland Museum of Art website at http://clevelandart.org.