The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0739
The Giudecca - Winter; grey and blue
Date
The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue dates from between October and December 1879.
The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue, Private Collection
It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 739).
Images
The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue, Private Collection
Anon., Copy of The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue, private collection
Subject
Site
The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue, Private Collection
The Canale della Giudecca and Isola della Giudecca lie south of Venice. This view was drawn from the west end of the Public Gardens, looking north-west to the Riva degli Schiavoni. The watercolour Venice Harbour m0726 shows a similar view. At left are the Royal gardens, the Campanile and the Doge's Palace. 1
Comments
Anon., Copy of The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue, private collection
There is a detailed copy of the pastel, with a deformed butterfly 'signature', by an unidentified artist. 2 This may have confused the history of Whistler's pastel.
Technique
Technique
The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue, Private Collection
See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 739).
History
Provenance
- 1903: owned by Blanche Elisabeth Marchesi (1863-1940).
- 1920: bought on 9 July from David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), London art dealer, by Knoedler's;
- 1920: bought on 26 July by Colnaghi's, London art dealers, and sold to a private collector on 31 March 1922.
- 1961: possibly sold at auction, Parke-Bernet, New York, 26 April 1961 (lot 3) as 'View of Venice from the Lagoon'.
- 1993: sold from the collection of Dr John Weber, Sotheby's, New York, 27 May 1993 (lot 1);
- 1994: sold by the art dealer R. Thune to the Fine Art Society, London.
- 2001: sold, from the collection of Stanley Joseph Seeger (1930-2011), at Sotheby's, New York, 8 May 2001 (lot 3).
The provenance is difficult to establish fully because of the existence of an anonymous copy. 3
Exhibitions
1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 29) 'The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue'.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 739) as 'The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue'.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 29) 'The Giudecca – Winter; grey and blue'.
Newspapers 1855-1905
- Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Venice Pastels', Daily News, London, 31 January 1881, p. 2.
Journals 1855-1905
- Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Wenice; or, Pastels by Pastelthwaite,' Punch, vol. 80, 12 February 1881, p. 69.
- Scott, William, 'Reminiscences of Whistler. Some Venice Recollections', The Studio, vol. 30, November 1903, pp. 97-108, repr. p. 97.
- Thomson, David Croal, Barbizon House: An Illustrated Record, London, 1920, p. 19.
Books on Whistler
- Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, p. 140, repr. p. 142.
- MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, p. 39.
- Macfall, C. Haldane, Whistler: Butterfly, Wasp, Wit, Master of the Arts, Enigma, Edinburgh and London, 1905, repr. f.p. 24.
Notes:
1: Grieve 2000 [more], p. 140, repr. p. 142.
2: With Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 31 December 2008.
3: The copy was with Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 31 December 2008. A pastel was sold at Parke-Bernet, New York, 26 April 1961 (lot 3) as 'View of Venice from the Lagoon' but the size is given as 6 ½ x 11". A pastel lent anonymously to Painters of the Beautiful, Durlacher Brothers, New York, 1964 (cat. no. 19) may have been the Whistler pastel or the copy.