The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Palace; white and pink dates from 1879/1880.

The Palace; white and pink, National Gallery of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 758). Updated provenance is given in HISTORY.

Images

Subject

Site

The Palace; white and pink, National Gallery of Art

Venice, Italy: a famous 13th century palace, the Ca' da Mosto on the Grand Canal, as seen from the Fabriche Nove in San Polo. ¹

Technique

Technique

The Palace; white and pink, National Gallery of Art

The scene is vignetted, the ground floor of the palace, and the gondola at the watergate, being drawn lightly in black in great detail, and colours applied in dots and lshort strokes. Longer strokes were used on the water and walls. A wider range of colour than usual was used. ²

Frame

419 x 520 x 413 mm (16 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 1 5/8".)

History

Provenance

• By 1904: Henry Osbourne Havemeyer (1847-1907);
• 1907: bequeathed to Louisine Waldron Havemeyer (1855-1929);
• 1929: bequeathed to her daughter, Adaline Havemeyer Frelinghuysen, and passed by descent to her son, The Honorable Peter H. B. Frelinghuysen, and grandson, Peter Frelinghuysen;
• 2012: sold at auction, Doyle's, New York, 9 May 2012 (lot 341), achieving a world auction record price for a Whistler work on paper, $650,000;
• 2012: bought by the National Gallery of Art, from the Paul Mellon Fund and Patrons' Permanent Fund.

The early provenance is unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 15) as 'The palace; white and pink'.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 123) as 'The Palace – Pink and White'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 758) as 'The Palace; white and pink'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 15) as 'The palace; white and pink'.
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 123) as 'The Palace – Pink and White'.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon. [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.
• St James Gazette, 9 February 1881.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 65-66, repr. pl. 58, view repr. pl. 61, photograph by Carlo Naya repr. pl. 59.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 99, 101, repr. p. 106, pl. 112.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, drawing repr. f.p. 52.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen et al., Splendid Legacy: The Havemeyer Collection, New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1993 (cat. no. 518).

SALE:

• Doyle's, New York, 9 May 2012 (lot 341).

Websites

• National Gallery of Art website at https://www.nga.gov.
• Doyle, New York, 2012, website at http://doyle.com/auctions.