The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sunset; blue and gold dates from 1880.

Sunset; blue and gold, Private Collection

This pastel is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 814).

Images

Subject

Site

Sunset; blue and gold, Private Collection

Venice, Italy. A view of the domes of Santa Maria della Salute: the ball on the tower of the Dogana or Customs House is clearly visible.

Technique

Technique

Sunset; blue and gold, Private Collection

It was drawn in 1880 but signed 1894/1898.

It is discussed in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 814)

History

Provenance

• 1881: sold to an unknown collector.
• 1897: bought on 23 November 1897 from Goupil, London dealers (label, Boussod, Valadon & Cie, 5 Regent St.) by a private collector.
• 1903: possibly with William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925).
• Date unknown: said to have been owned by Rudolph J. Taussig (1861-1922), Secretary of the Panama Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, of 1915.
• Date unknown: with William Kingston Vickery (1851-1925) at W. K. Vickery, 236 Post Street, San Francisco dealers (label).
• 1962: sold from a Californian private collection, at auction, Parke Bernet, New York, 18 April 1962 (lot 68) as 'Sunset in Blue and Gold'.
• By 1978: owned by Charles Howard Vollum (1913-1986) and his wife Mrs Jean Vollum (d. 2007), Oregon.
• 1984: bought from Coe Kerr, New York dealers, by the Ira and Nancy Koger collection, Savannah;
• 1993: sold at auction, Sotheby's, New York, September 1993.
• 1995: Spanierman Gallery, New York.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 814); this provenance has been revised.

Exhibitions

• 1881: probably Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 37) as 'Sunset; blue and gold'.
• 1903: possibly Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 40) as 'Sunset, Venice'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 814) as 'Sunset; blue and gold'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Probably Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 37) as 'Sunset; blue and gold'.
• Possibly Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 40) as 'Sunset, Venice'.

Journals 1855-1905

• 'Venice in Pastel', St James's Gazette, 9 February 1881, p. 13.
• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Venice; or, Pastels by Pastelthwaite', Punch, vol. 80, 12 February 1881, p. 69.

Books on Whistler

• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, repr. f.p. 52.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Sixty Years of American Art, 1870-1930, Spanierman Gallery, New York, 1995 (checklist, no. cat. number) as 'Sunset in Blue and Gold'.