The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

A Violet Note dates from between 1892 and 1896.

The pose is very close to that of a lithograph, A Nude Model Arranging Flowers c057, possibly dating from 1892. However, it was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1894 and not received until 1896. ¹

A Violet Note, Freer Gallery of Art

It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1395), dated '1893/5'; this entry has been revised.

Images

Subject

Sitter

A Violet Note, Freer Gallery of Art

Not identified. Possibly one of the Pettigrew sisters.

Technique

Composition

The pose is very close to that of a lithograph A Nude Model Arranging Flowers c057, possibly dating from 1892.

A Violet Note, Freer Gallery of Art

The White Symphony: Three Girls, Freer Gallery of Art

The final drawing is one of several late studies of bending nudes, exploring poses first developed in The White Symphony: Three Girls y087 and The Three Girls y088.

Technique

There are traces of another drawing underneath. This appears to be a woman with a long robe, which falls in a broad curve from her extended left arm, leaning on a railing. Patches of smudged white were used in the background to conceal the earlier drawing.

The final figure is solidly modelled, with the round end of the pastel used for highlights on shoulder and hand. Jagged and wrinkled lines are added to the folds over her stomach.

Conservation History

It was drawn on a greyish brown, fibrous paper, so rubbed by the artist with pastel and hand that the surface looks furry, like felt.

History

Provenance

• 1894: sold by Whistler to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, in November;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Further details are given in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1395).

Exhibitions

• 1901: Probably 3rd Exhibition, Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, Galleries of the Royal Institute, London, 1901 (cat. no. 33) as 'Violet Note'.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 133) as 'A Violet Note'.

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. 1395) as 'A Violet Note'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Probably 3rd Exhibition, Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, Galleries of the Royal Institute, London, 1901 (cat. no. 33) as 'Violet Note'.
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 133) as 'A Violet Note'.

Books on Whistler

• Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington, DC, and London, 1995, nos. 22 and 28, pp. 101-102, 111-112, pl. 4.
• Spink, Nesta R., Harriet K. Stratis, and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, (gen. eds, Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi), 2 vols., Chicago, 1998 (lithograph, cat. no. 57).

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 271, pl. 269.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1894.26a-c, as 'A Violet Note'.
• Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online website. GUW #01509, #01534.