The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
M.1285
Mother and Child
Date
Mother and Child dates from 1892/1893.
Mother and Child, Colby College Museum of Art
It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1285). The record, including the date (formerly dated 'probably 1890/2'), has been updated and corrected.
Images
Mother and Child, Colby College Museum of Art
Subject
Site
Mother and Child, Colby College Museum of Art
The sitter has not been identified. The statue, of cupids possibly surrounding a bowl, suggests that Whistler added a detail from the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris. It is unlikely that the model posed there!
The Steps, Luxembourg c068, a lithograph drawn in the Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, in October/November 1893, shows some of the garden statuary with two cupids supporting a wide bowl.
Several of Whistler's preparatory sketches for lithographs show the gardens, i. e. The Terrace, Luxembourg m1332, Seated woman in Luxembourg Gardens m1401 and Statue in Luxembourg Gardens m1400.
Technique
Technique
Mother and Child, Colby College Museum of Art
Short, curved and sometimes multiple lines outline the figures, and widely spaced broken lines, the statuary. The pastels are smoothed in over the flesh, and applied in bright strokes of colour to the folds.
History
Provenance
- 1892: sold by Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, to Bertha Honoré Palmer (1849-1918);
- 1918: passed by family descent to her sons Honoré Palmer (1874-1964)‚ and Potter Palmer, Jr (1875-1943).
- 2013: given by Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) and Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933) to Colby College Museum of Art.
Exhibitions
- 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 147) as 'Mother and Child'.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1285) as 'Mother and Child'.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 147) as 'Mother and Child'.
Websites
- Colby College Museum of Art website.