The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0741
Venice at Sunset
Date
Venice at Sunset dates from between October and December 1879.
Venice at Sunset, Portland Museum of Art
It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 741).
Images
Venice at Sunset, Portland Museum of Art
Subject
Site
Venice at Sunset, Portland Museum of Art
A distant view of the city of Venice, Italy.
Technique
Technique
Venice at Sunset, Portland Museum of Art
There are traces of pentimenti on the boats and traces of another boat at left. There is a description of the technique in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 741).
History
Provenance
- Dates unknown: said to have been with Doll and Richards, Boston dealers, and Anna Sears Amory, Boston, MA.
- Date unknown: with Arthur H. Hahlo & Co., New York dealer.
- 1917: owned by the Revd George Francis Weld (1866-1933), and his wife Dorothy Appleton Weld (1878-1965), Montecito, Santa Barbara, California.
- 1961: sold from a Washington, DC, collection, at Parke-Bernet, New York, 25 January 1961 (lot 5) as 'Venice at Sunset'.
- By 1964: owned by Joan Whitney Payson (1903-1975) and Charles Shipman Payson (1898-1985);
- 1985: passed to the Payson estate;
- 1991: promised gift of their son, John Whitney Payson (1923-2016) to Portland Art Museum.
The early provenance is unknown. Although it was said (Parke-Bernet, 1961) to have been owned by Gardner Brewer, Boston, he died in 1874.
Exhibitions
No exhibition has been identified although the inscription implies that it was shown 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. 741) as 'Venice at Sunset'.
Books on Whistler
- MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, p. 59.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- Bochicchio, Sarah, 'James Abbott McNeill Whistler', in Laurette McCarthy, Steven Levine, John Payson, Joanne Payson, and Brian Wallace, A Century of Self-Expression. Modern American Art in the Collection of John and Joanne Payson, Bryn Mawr College, PA, 2014, at p. 22, repr. p. 23.