The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Moreby Hall dates from 1883/1884.

Moreby Hall, Freer Gallery of Art

This work is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 908).

Images

Subject

Site

Moreby Hall, Freer Gallery of Art

Moreby Hall, just south of York, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, was built between 1818 and 1831 and was owned by Thomas Henry Preston (1817-1906), JP (formerly a Captain in the 7th Hussars) and his wife Georgiana, the daughter of Major General Sir Guy Campbell.

Technique

Technique

See technical details in Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.

History

Provenance

• 1885: sold, according to Messrs Dowdeswell, on Whistler's behalf to Edward John Poole (b. ca 1848).
• By 1902: Elbert Jan van Wisselingh (1848-1912), art dealer, claiming to have bought it direct from Whistler, sold it to John James Cowan (1846-1936), Edinburgh;
• 1904: bought from Cowan on 13 June, through William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London dealer, by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

The sale of several pictures to Poole is documented, and he was willing to lend works from his collection in the 1880s and early 1890s, but it is not entirely clear what happened to this particular watercolour. ¹ On 7 November 1902 Cowan told Freer that van Wisselingh had bought this watercolour from Whistler; a few days later, on 19 November, when sending Whistler a list of his collection, Cowan queried the title, calling it 'Morby Hall'. ²

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 908).

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 28) as 'Moreby Hall'.
• 1904:78th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1904 (cat. no. 80).
• 1905:Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 100) as 'Moreby Hall'.

By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 908) as 'Moreby Hall'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 28) as 'Moreby Hall'.
• 78th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, 1904 (cat. no. 80).
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 100) as 'Moreby Hall'.

Books on Whistler

• Glazer, Lee, Emily Jacobson, Blythe McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor: Lovely Little Games, New Haven and London, 2019.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 199, pl. 129.
• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, pp. 80-81 (cat. no. 53).

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.80a-b.
• Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.