The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Maud reading in bed dates from 1883/1884. It is dated from the subject, technique and signature. A similar subject, Convalescent or Petit Déjeuner; note in opal m0903 was probably exhibited in 1884.

Maud reading in bed, Hood Museum of Art

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 902).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Maud reading in bed, Hood Museum of Art

Maud Franklin (1857-1939).

Technique

Composition

Convalescent , Private Collection

Maud reading in bed, Hood Museum of Art

Maud reading in bed m0902 and Convalescent or Petit Déjeuner; note in opal m0903 are closely related compositions.

History

Provenance

• Date unknown: with Frederick Keppel (1845-1912), New York art dealer.
• By 1949: owned by Elizabeth Deborah Steele Elton (1875-1962), widow of John Prince Elton (1865-1948), Waterbury, CT;
• 1950s: passed by family descent to their daughter and son-in-law, Deborah Richmond Elton Allen (1908-2003) and Arthur Elliot Allen, Jr (1911-2010), Hanover, NH;
• 1971: given by Mr and Mrs Arthur E. Allen, Jr, to Dartmouth College.

Mrs Elton stated that it had been owned by a member of the Whistler family in Baltimore, which is quite possible, but there is no corroboration of this: see MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 902).

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited in Whistler's lifetime, although, given the level of finish and the signature, it is quite possible that it was exhibited at Messrs Dowdeswells or on the continent.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 902) as 'Maud reading in bed'.

Books, General

• Compton, Annette Carroll, Drawing From the Mind Painting From the Heart, New York, NY, 2002, repr. p. 34.
• MacAdam, Barbara J., American Paintings in the Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover and London, 1985, p. 1025.
• MacAdam, Barbara J., American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, 2007, p. 138, cat. no. 110.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• James McNeill Whistler Seventeenth Anniversary Exhibition, Lyman Allyn Museum, New London, CT, 1949 (cat. no. 34) as 'Interior: Study of a Woman in Bed'.
• Recent Acquisitions, Beaumont-May Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 1972.
• Franklin W. Robinson, [et al.], Works on Paper: Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Drawings and Watercolors from the Dartmouth College Collection, Carpenter Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 1975 (cat. no. 7) pp. 17-18, repr.
• Image of Woman, Carpenter Hall Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 1976.
• Nineteenth Century American Drawings, Beaumont-May Gallery, Hopkins Center Art Galleries, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 1976 (no cat. no.).
• Spink, Nesta, Whistler: The Later Years, University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, 1978 (no cat. no.).
• MacDonald, Margaret F., Notes, Harmonies, and Nocturnes: Small Works by James McNeill Whistler, M. Knoedler and Co., New York, 1984 (cat. no. 24) as 'Woman Reading in Bed'.
• James McNeill Whistler: Works from the Dartmouth Collection, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 1988 (no catalogue).
• From Copley to Dove: American Drawings and Watercolors at Dartmouth, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 1989 (no catalogue).
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 133) repr.
• American Works on Paper to 1950: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Friends and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 2007.
• The Object World, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, ARTH2, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 2015.
• Songs on Stone: James McNeill Whistler and the Art of Lithography, Art Institute of Chicago and National Gallery of Canada, 1998–1999.
• MacAdam, Barbara J., Marks of Distinction: Two Hundred Years of American Drawings and Watercolors from the Hood Museum of Art, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH; Grand Rapids Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan; National Academy Museum, New York City, NY, 2005 (cat. no. 29), pp. 23, 38, 114-17, 120, 257-58, repr. fig. 19, front cover.
• American Works on Paper from the Gilded Age, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, 2011.

Journals 1906-Present

• Art Journal, 1972, repr. p. 46.
• Jacquelyn Baas, 'From "a few curious Elephants Bones" to Picasso', Dartmouth Alumni Magazine, Dartmouth College: Trustees of Dartmouth College, September 1985, pp. 37-43, re[pr. p. 41.
• 'Whistler', Special Edition, Connaissance des Arts, New York, February 1995, repr. inside back cover.
• MacAdam, Barbara J., 'Marks of Distinction: Two Hundred Years of American Drawings and Watercolors from the Hood Museum of Art', American Art Review, vol. 17, no. 2, April 2005, pp. 86-93, repr. p. 89.

Websites

• Hood Museum of Art website at https://hoodmuseum.dartmouth.edu.