The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Family dates from 1892/1896. It is dated both from the technique and butterfly monogram.

Family, Private Collection

It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1347).

Images

Subject

Site

Family, Private Collection

Possibly Whistler's studio.

Sitter

Family, Private Collection

Unknown. The interaction between the figures is interesting, with the man leaning forward reflectively, the woman in her fashionable tall hat, like a plum pudding with holly on top, cradling a plump baby.

Technique

Technique

Family, Private Collection

Whistler sketched a frame round the subject, and signed it with a butterfly, which suggests he thought of it as a finished work. The vertical shading cuts through this outline.

Conservation History

This sheet may have been cut from a sketchbook. The paper is a dark creamy beige, slightly darkened within the mount, and tipped down round the edges.

History

Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his sister-in-law Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1945: possibly sold to Colnaghi's, London art dealers, 9 July 1945 as 'An Exterior with a mother and child';
• 1945: sold on 24 July to Villiers David (1906-1985), London.
• 1981: sold, from an Australian collection, at Christie's, London, 6 November 1981 (lot 1, repr.), and bought by Kurt Meissner, art dealer, Munich;
• 1987: bought by a private collector.

Exhibitions

It was not, as far as is known, 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. 1347) as 'Family'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

SALE:

• Christie's, London, 6 November 1981 (lot 1, repr.).