The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.0776
A Red Note
Date
A Red Note dates from 1879/1880.
The pastel is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 776).
Images
A Red Note, Whereabouts unknown
Subject
Description
Way's illustration showed a wide street opening out onto a square, across which is seen, on the left, a four storey red building and, on the right, a cream-coloured three storey building, each with two windows on each of three floors. The sky is blue. The drawing was a narrow upright, the size given above being only a rough estimate, by comparison with Way's other reproductions, which were not done exactly to scale. 1
Site
Venice, Italy.
Technique
Technique
Unknown.
History
Provenance
Unknown.
Exhibitions
- 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 43) as 'A Red Note'.
- 1889: “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 38) as 'A Red Note – Venice'.
It was priced at 30 guineas in 1889, but remained unsold, and was returned to Whistler after the exhibition by Wunderlich's on the SS Servia. 2
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 776) as 'A Red Note'.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 43) as 'A Red Note'.
- “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 38) as 'A Red Note – Venice'.
Newspapers 1855-1905
- New York Herald, New York, 2 March 1889.
- New York Tribune, New York, 13 March 1889.
Journals 1855-1905
- Anon., [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.
- Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Wenice; or, Pastels by Pastelthwaite,' Punch, vol. 80, 12 February 1881, p. 69.
Books on Whistler
- Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000.
- MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001.
- Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, drawing by Way f.p. 52.
Notes:
1: Way 1912 [more], drawing by Way repr. f.p. 52.
2: G. Dieterlen, H. Wunderlich & Co., to Whistler, 1 November 1889, GUW #07187.