The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Fishing Boats dates from 1880.

Fishing Boats, Cincinnati Art Museum

The pastel is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 819).

Images

Subject

Site

Fishing Boats, Cincinnati Art Museum

Looking south from the Casa Jankowitz towards the islands on the lagoon, Venice, Italy. ¹

Technique

Technique

Fishing Boats, Cincinnati Art Museum

The butterfly signature may be a later addition.

History

Provenance

• 1880s: bought by Louis Huth (1821-1905);
• 1905: bequeathed to his widow, Helen Rose Huth (1837-1924), later Mrs A. B. How;
• 1925: sold after her death, at auction, Christie's, London, 24 April 1925 (lot 98) as 'On the Lagoons, Venice - Three sailing boats becalmed' and bought for £378.0.0. by David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), London art dealer.
• Date unknown: with Carroll Carstairs, New York dealer (label).
• By 1935: owned by Mary Hanna (1860-1956), Cincinnati;
• 1956: bequeathed by Mary Hanna to the Cincinnati Art Museum.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 819).

Exhibitions

• 1881: Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 47) as 'Fishing Boats'.
• 1888: Probably Exhibition of Pastels, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1888 (cat. no. 4, 85, 88 or 89) as 'Venice'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 819) as 'Fishing Boats'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Venice Pastels, Fine Art Society, London, 1881 (cat. no. 47).
• Probably Exhibition of Pastels, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1888 (cat. no. 4, 85, 88 or 89) as 'Venice'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Venice Pastels', Daily News, London, 31 January 1881, p. 2.
• Anon., 'Art: Venice Pastels', The Observer, London, 6 February 1881, supplement p. 1.
• Anon., 'Pastels at the Grosvenor Gallery', The Standard, London, 20 October 1888, p. 2.

Journals 1855-1905

• Anon., [Godwin, E. W.], 'Review of Venice Pastels Exhibition', British Architect, 4 February 1881, pp. 59-64.
• Anon., 'Mr Whistler's Venice, or, Pastels by Pastelthwaite', Punch, vol. 80, 12 February 1881, p. 69, repr. as 'Awfully Cowld!'.

Books on Whistler

• Grieve, Alastair, Whistler's Venice, New Haven and London, 2000, pp. 121-22, repr. pl. 146, view repr. pl. 145.
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, Aldershot and California, 2001, pp. 57, 59, 99, repr. pl. 65.
• Way, Thomas Robert, and G. R. Dennis, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, 1st edition, London, 1903, p. 93.
• Menpes, Mortimer, Whistler as I Knew Him, London, 1904, repr. p.10 as 'Black and Gold, Venice'.
• Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 52, repr. f.p. 52.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

SALE:

• Christie's, London, 24 April 1925 (lot 97) as 'A Side Canal, Venice'.

Websites

• Cincinnati ARt Museum website at https://www.cincinnatiartmuseum.org.