The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Design for mouldings for Messrs Dowdeswell dates from 10 April 1886. ¹

Design for mouldings for Messrs Dowdeswell, Library of Congress

It is fully catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1103).

Images

Subject

Site

Design for mouldings for Messrs Dowdeswell, Library of Congress

Whistler's design for interior decorations in Messrs Dowdeswell's gallery at 133 New Bond Street, London.

Technique

Composition

Design for mouldings for Messrs Dowdeswell, Library of Congress

This was a design for decorations for Whistler's one-man show, 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886, held in Messrs Dowdeswell's gallery at 133 New Bond Street. His accompanying letter reads:

'Here you are -

Raw umber - with a little yellow ochre and raw Sienna with white -

Keep it light like the left side of the Butterfly.' ²

Whistler designed an Arrangement in Brown and Gold decorative scheme for the gallery.

History

Provenance

• 1886: sent by Whistler to Messrs Dowdeswell, art dealers, London.
• Date unknown: acquired by Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891-1971);
• 1943: given to the National Gallery of Art but housed at the Alverthorpe Gallery;
• 1980: moved from Alverthorpe, and deposited in the Library of Congress.

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. 1103) as 'Design for mouldings for Messrs Dowdeswell'.

Books on Whistler

• Bendix, Deanna Marohn, Diabolical Designs: Paintings, Interiors, and Exhibitions of James McNeill Whistler, Washington and London, 1995, repr. p. 237.

Websites

• The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, edited by Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp; including The Correspondence of Anna McNeill Whistler, 1855-1880, edited by Georgia Toutziari. Online edition, University of Glasgow, 2003-2004. GUW #08713.