The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff dates from 1880/1881.

'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff, photograph, Library of Congress

This is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 834).

Images

Subject

Description

'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff, photograph, Library of Congress

A tree branch in the foreground, the silhouette of a city on the horizon.

According to the Pennells:

'Mrs. Lynedoch Moncrieff was composing the music for some verses of Owen Meredith's. Whistler said he would like to illustrate them. She told him they were about the lark.' ¹

Edward Robert Bulwer Lytton (Owen Meredith) wrote the poem of idyllic love, 'Thoughts at Sunrise', published in The Poems of Owen Meredith (Honble. Robert Lytton) (1869), pp. 30-33. See 'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff m0833.

Site

'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff, photograph, Library of Congress

The distant view, though imaginary, looks like Venice.

Technique

Technique

'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff, photograph, Library of Congress

It is known only from the photograph in the E. R. and J. Pennell Collection, Library of Congress.

'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff, photograph, Library of Congress

Another version is 'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff m0833.

History

Provenance

• 1880/1881: given to Antoinette 'Nita' Gaetano Moncrieff (1844-1937), London.

Antoinette Gaetano Mackie, daughter of John Clarens Mackie, was born in New Orleans. On 10 December 1878 she married a retired naval officer, Lynedoch Needham Moncrieff (1841-1883). She was later recorded as Antoinette Marie Lynedoch Moncrieff, and died in Kensington on 25 July 1937.

The Moncrieffs lived near Whistler, at Cadogan Place in Chelsea. They had one daughter, Mary Mercedes Julie Moncrieff (1880-1974) who married Henry Crofton Schneider (1876-1939). See further details in 'Thoughts at Sunrise' by Nita Moncrieff m0833.

Exhibitions

• 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. 127) as 'Illustrations for "Thoughts at Sunrise," a song by Mrs. Moncrieff'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 834) as ' "Thoughts at Sunrise" by Nita Moncrieff'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 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. 127) as 'Illustrations for "Thoughts at Sunrise," a song by Mrs. Moncrieff'.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 227.