The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Sketch of 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle' may date from 1884, when the painting it represents, Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137, was exhibited in Paris.

Sketch of 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle', Fogg Art Museum

This is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 842) dated '1881/5'.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Sketch of 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle', Fogg Art Museum

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) is the subject but he probably did not pose for this drawing.

Technique

Composition

Sketch of 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle', Fogg Art Museum

Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle , Glasgow Museums

This may have been a sketch from memory or a photograph of Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle y137.

History

Provenance

• Before 1935: owned by Gustav Nebehay (1881-1935), art dealer, Berlin (photograph, Witt Library, Courtauld Institute).
• 1943: bequeathed by Grenville Lindell Winthrop (1864-1943) to the Fogg Art Museum.

The earlier provenance is unknown.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 842) as "Sketch of 'Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 2: Portrait of Thomas Carlyle' ".

Books on Whistler

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 247, fig. 222-23.

Books, General

• Slatkin, Charles E. and Regina Shoolman Slatkin, Treasury of American Drawings, New York, 1947, no. 69, p. xvii, repr. as pl. 69.

Websites

• Harvard Art Museums website at https://www.harvardartmuseums.org.