The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Iris is dated 14 March 1882, and was acquired by Thomas Fothergill McNay (1836-1907) and his wife.

Iris, Humanities Research Centre, Austin

Fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 871).

Images

Subject

Description

Iris, Humanities Research Centre, Austin

A vignetted sketch of two irises.

Technique

Composition

Iris, Humanities Research Centre, Austin

The subject is connected, remotely, to Whistler's etching Sketch after Cecil Lawson's "Swan and Iris" [247] of 1882, which itself was etched after an unfinished painting by Cecil Gordon Lawson (1851-1882).

History

Provenance

• 1882: acquired from Whistler by Thomas Fothergill McNay (1836-1907) and his wife, Mary Isabella Cooke (Mrs T. F. McNay) (1840-1906, m. 1865) (1840-1906), Upper Grove, Norwood, London;
• After 1906: sold after Mrs McNay's death, possibly at auction, and bought by Victor G. Fischer, art dealer, Washington, DC.
• Date unknown: sold by Miss Emma Tate to J. W. Young (note on verso).
• Date unknown: bought by Tullah Innes Hanley (1911-1992), wife of Thomas Edward Hanley (1893-1969);
• 1965: gift from the Hanley Collection to the Iconography Collection, Humanities Research Centre.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 871).

Exhibitions

It was not 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. 871) as 'Iris'.