The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

r.: The Palace in Rags; v.: Houses by a canal, with bridges dates from 1879/1880.

The Palace in Rags, Thomas Colville Fine Art

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no 770). This entry has been updated and revised.

Images

Subject

Site

The Palace in Rags, Thomas Colville Fine Art

Venice, Italy: the Palazzo Rezzonico on the Grand Canal, where Whistler is said to have stayed for a while.

Technique

Technique

The Palace in Rags, Thomas Colville Fine Art

MacDonald (1995) commented as follows:

'This fine drawing shows Whistler's constant interest in windows as a frame, a spatial element, with figures lit by the light of the window and also silhouetted against it: a problem of some complexity, which he resolved with extremely delicate use of colour. ...

The arrangement of the interior is not entirely clear: a flight of steps leads to a long chamber barely furnished but hung with pictures. Women in black are seated by a tall window, the man to left is drawn with meticulous detail. The window and figures, solidly modelled and richly coloured, are set like a jewel in the large bare rectangle of the apartment.

The scene is a vignette, with rough, bold work at the edge, heavy black and brown pastel which emphasizes the delicacy of the central area. The paper is a lightish brown, with a slight grain. There is grey on the wall and grey, with touches of pink, smoothed across the floor. The far wall is very dark, intensified by prussian blue over brown, with a blue hanging. These deep, cool colours, frame the view, where the roofs seem bright and sunny, touched with warmer colours, pink and orange. The figures are black and brown with minute flecks of complementary colours, green and blue, pink and orange.' ¹

History

Provenance

• 1886/1892: 'selected' by Whistler and probably bought by Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912), Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1915: purchased on 23 November from Albert Louis Roullier (1858-1920), Albert Roullier Art Galleries, Chicago, by Marshall Field III (1893-1956), Chicago;
• By 1938: owned by his ex-wife, Evelyn M. Field, later Mrs Diego Suarez (1888–1979);
• 1960: bought on 15 June by Knoedler's, New York art dealers;
• 1961: bought in May by Norman Bailey Woolworth (1901-1962).
• 1974: purchased through R. M. Light, art dealer, California, by Agnew's, London art dealers;
• 1974: bought by a private collector;
• 2014: bought by Thomas Colville Fine Art, New York.

See further details MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 770).

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 33) as 'The Palace in Rags'.

The Country Gentleman described it appreciatively as 'a mellow diffused light in a sombre chamber.' The Daily Telegraph noted 'a fine bit of gloom, with a poetic gleam of central light.' ²

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 770) as 'r.: The Palace in Rags; v.: Houses by a canal, with bridges'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 33) as 'The Palace in Rags'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Venice Pastels, Daily Telegraph, London, 5 February 1881.

Journals 1855-1905

• Country Gentleman, 5 February 1881.

Books on Whistler

• Denker, Eric, Whistler and his circle in Venice, London, 2003, pp. 26-27, fig. 6.
• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 72-74, repr. no. 75.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 19, 21, 99.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, repr. f.p. 52.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Pastels, Etchings and Lithographs by Whistler, Kennedy & Co., New York, 1914 (cat. no. 5).
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Whistler. The Graphic Work: Amsterdam, Liverpool, London, Venice, Agnew and Sons, London; Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool; City Art Gallery, Glasgow, 1976 (cat. no. 99, repr.)
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, 1984 (ca. no. 88).
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 105).
• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, pp. 43-44, 222, repr. fig. 38 (not exhibited).
• Zorzi, Rosella Mamoli, Anne McCauly, and Erica E. Hirshler, Gondola Days: Isabella Stewart Gardner and the Palazzo Barbaro Circle, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 2004.
• Whistler and His Influence, Thomas Colville Fine Art, The Art Show, The Park Avenue Armory, New York, 2015 (Plate 6). Online.

Websites

• Thomas Colville Fine Art website at https://www.thomascolville.com.