The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Zattere; harmony in blue and brown dates from 1879/1880.

The Zattere; harmony in blue and brown, Terra Foundation for the Arts, Chicago

The pastel is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 774).

Images

Subject

Site

The Zattere; harmony in blue and brown, Terra Foundation for the Arts, Chicago

The Fondamenta delle Zattere runs beside the Canale della Giudecca, on the south side of the city of Venice, Italy. Whistler took his stance on the Ponte Lungo looking west along the quayside. ¹

Technique

Technique

The Zattere; harmony in blue and brown, Terra Foundation for the Arts, Chicago

See details see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 774).

History

Provenance

• By 1886: probably bought by Ross Revillon Winans (1850-1912), Baltimore, Maryland.
• 1914: with Albert Louis Roullier (1858-1920), Albert Roullier Art Galleries, Chicago;
• By 1915: bought by Marshall Field III (1893-1956), Chicago;
• By 1938: owned by his ex-wife, Evelyn M. Field, later Mrs Diego Suarez (1888–1979).
• 1962: bought from F. W. Woolworth on 23 March by Knoedler's, New York dealers;
• 1963: sold in January to a private collector;
• 1984: sold through Knoedler's to Daniel J. Terra (1911-1996);
• 1985: Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, IL;
• 1992: Terra Foundation for the Arts Collection, Chicago, IL;
• 2004: The Terra Museum of American Art in Chicago closed; The Terra Foundation for American Art placed part of the collection, including the works on paper, on long-term loan to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 4) as 'The Zattere; harmony in blue and brown'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 774) as 'The Zattere; harmony in blue and brown'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 4) as 'The Zattere; harmony in blue and brown'.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.
• 'Mr Whistler's Venice Pastels', Pan, 5 February 1881.
• 'Mr. Whistler's 'Venice Pastels', The Queen, 12 February 1881, p. 171.
• Godwin, E. W., 'With Whistler's Critics', British Architect, 25 February 1991, pp. 98-99.

Books on Whistler

• Getscher, Robert Harold, James Abbott McNeill Whistler Pastels, New York, 1991, p. 74, repr. p. 75.
• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 76, repr. pl. 78, view repr. pl. 78.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 49-50, 52, repr. pl. 55, photograph by Archivio Filippi repr. pl. 56.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, repr. f.p. 52.

Books, General

• Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy, An American Point of View: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Chicago, 2002, pp. 104, 108, 206, repr. pp. 105, 206.
• Bourguignon, Katherine M. and Elizabeth Kennedy, Un regard transatlantique. La collection d'art américain de Daniel J. Terra, Chicago, 2002, pp. 104, 108, 206, repr. pp. 105, 206.
• Bourguignon, Katherine M., and Peter John Brownlee (eds), Conversations with the Collection: A Terra Foundation Collection Handbook, Chicago, 2018, p. 128, repr. p. 128.
• Cleveland, David A, A History of American Tonalism: 1880-1920, Manchester, Vermont, 2010, p. 140, repr. fig. 3.68, p. 140.
• Stratis, Harriet K. and Britt Salvesen (eds), The Broad Spectrum: Studies in the Materials, Techniques, and Conservation of Color on Paper, London, 2002, p. 38, repr. fig. 1.27, p. 38.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Pastels, Etchings and Lithographs by Whistler, Kennedy & Co., New York, 1914 (cat. no. 63) as 'Little Riva, Venice'.
• Whistler Pastels and Water Colours, Carroll Carstairs, New York, 1938 (cat. no. 4).
• Trois Siècles d'Art aux Etats-Unis, Musée de Jeu de Paume, Paris, 1938 (cat. no. 180).
• White, Nelson C., James McNeill Whistler Seventeenth Anniversary Exhibition, Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT, 1949 (cat. no. 51) as 'Little Riva'.
• Stebbins, Theodore E., Jr, American Master Drawings and Watercolors, American Federation for the Arts, New York, 1976-1977 (as The Little Riva in Opal) p. 226, repr. fig. 184, p. 225 as 'The Little Riva, in Opal'.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1984 (cat. no. 81).
• Atkinson, D. Scott et al., A Proud Heritage: Two Centuries of American Art, Terry A. Neff (ed.). Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1987, repr. pl. T-33, p. 142.
• An American Revelation: The Daniel J. Terra Collection, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1988.
• Regard sur James Abbott McNeill Whistler (James Abbott McNeill Whistler at a Glance), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, 1994.
• 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. 112), repr. p. 191.
• American Treasures: Chase, Whistler, and the Prendergasts, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1996-1997.
• The Decorative Form: The Aesthetic Movement, Arts & Crafts and the Asian Influence in American Art, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, 1999.
• Rivières et rivages: les artistes américains, 1850–1900 (Waves and Waterways: American Perspectives, 1850-1900), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, France, 2000.
• Collection Cameo, Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, July 2003.
• Harris, Neil et al., L'art américain: Identités d'une nation, Veerle Thielemans and Matthias Waschek (eds), Musée d'Art Américain Giverny, and Musée du Louvre, Paris, 2005, p. 95, repr. p. 97.

Journals 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Whistler on Exhibition', Magazine Antiques, vol. 147, June 1995, pp. 863-73, at p. 869, repr. pl. XI, p. 870.

Websites

• Terra Foundation for American Art website at https://collection.terraamericanart.org.