The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Bead stringers dates from 1880.

Bead stringers, Freer Gallery of Art

This pastel is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 788).

Images

Subject

Site

Bead stringers, Freer Gallery of Art

A view down the narrow Calle Drio Erizzo to the Calle Crosera (which runs between the Campo de la Bragora and the Riva degli Schiavoni), in the sestiere of Castello, Venice, Italy. ¹

Technique

Technique

Bead stringers, Freer Gallery of Art

See discussion in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 788).

History

Provenance

• In or after 1881: owned by Thomas Way (1837-1915), London;
• 1905: sold in June by his son Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913) to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 788).

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 45) as 'Beadstringers'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 52)

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 788) as 'Bead stringers'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 45) as 'Beadstringers'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 52)

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Art. Venice Pastels', Observer, London, 6 February 1881.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.
• Anon., The Studio Whistler Portfolio, London, 1905 (ten colour reproductions), repr.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 152-53, repr. pl. 191, view repr. pl. 192.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 59, 61, 134, repr. pl. 70.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, p. 93, repr. f.p. 92.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, repr. f.p. 52.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 264, pl. 255.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1905.124a-b, as 'Bead Stringers'.