The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nude arranging her hair probably dates from 1897/1898 and was first recorded in 1903.

Nude arranging her hair, Drouot 1903, repr.

It is catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1490).

Images

Subject

Sitter

Nude arranging her hair, Drouot 1903, repr.

A very young model, unidentified.

Technique

Technique

Nude arranging her hair, Drouot 1903, repr.

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• 1903: owned by Carmen Rossi (b. ca 1878, Paris, according to Forthuny. ¹
• 1903: sold at auction, Drouot, Paris, 25 November 2003 (lot 5, repr.) as Femme nue se coiffant', and bought by 'Mancini' or, more likely, William Stephen Marchant (1868-1925), London art dealer, who owned it from 1903 until at least 1909.
• 1914: bought from V. G. Fischer, New York, by Knoedler's, New York art dealers, 13 March 1914;
• 1914: sold in April to William Welles Bosworth (1869-1966), New York.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1490) for further provenance. Its present whereabouts is unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1903: Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 195) as 'Femme nue se coiffant'.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1490) as 'Nude arranging her hair'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

EXHIBITION:

• Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 195) as 'Femme nue se coiffant'.

SALE:

• Drouot, Paris, 25 November 1903 (lot 5, repr.) as 'Femme nue se coiffant'.

Journals 1855-1905

• Forthuny, Pascal, 'Notes sur James Whistler', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 30, no. 557, 3rd series, November 1903, pp. 381-91, repr. p. 387 as 'Etude de nu'.
• Anon., 'The Whistler Sale in Paris', The Athenaeum, no. 3971, 5 December 1903, p. 761.
• Anon., 'Sales', Art Journal , 1904, p. 31.
• Anon, 'London Exhibitions. A group of Drawings by Whistler', Art Journal, February 1904, p. 67.