The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler
YMSM 018
Copy after a Group in Couture's 'Romains de la décadence'
Date
Copy after a Group in Couture's 'Romains de la décadence' dates from between 1857 and 1858.
On 17 June 1856, Whistler, sponsored by Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre (1806-1874), had obtained permission to enter the Musées Impériaux, Paris, 'pour les jours d'étude' (on study days). 1 Whistler's known copies date from late 1857 or early 1858 and were probably sent to America in March 1858.
Couture, Romains de la décadence, Musée d'Orsay
According to Thomas Armstrong (1832-1911), who was with Whistler in Paris in the late 1850s, one of Whistler's commissions from 'a whaling captain' was to paint a copy after a group in Romains de la décadence by Thomas Couture (1815-1879), then in the Musée du Luxembourg. 2 Couture's painting was bought from the Salon of 1847 and exhibited at the Luxembourg from 1851 until after 1871. It is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. There is, however, no record in the Archives du Louvre of Whistler having requested permission to copy a painting by Couture.
Images
Copy after a Group in Couture's 'Romains de la décadence', Whereabouts unknown
Couture, Romains de la décadence, Musée d'Orsay
Unknown artist, Study of a Head after Couture, private collection
Subject
Titles
Only one title has been suggested:
- 'Copy after a Group in Couture's 'Romains de la décadence' (1980, YMSM). 3
Description
Couture, 'Romains de la décadence', Musée d'Orsay
It is not known which group in Couture's painting was copied by Whistler: it is an enormous painting (472 × 772 cm) with over thirty figures, including nude or half-draped men and women, all either drunk or caressing each other, except for a couple of men looking on disapprovingly at right, and a few serious statues standing between the Corinthian pillars of the open loggia.
Comments
Pamela Robertson comments:
'Though Whistler did not meet Manet till 1861, there were connections beforehand. Manet had been a pupil of Couture from 1850 to 1856; Whistler copied part of Couture’s celebrated Romains de la Décadence of 1847. In 1852 Manet copied Boucher’s Diane au Bain, which Whistler subsequently copied. Both artists copied Velasquez’s La Réunion des Cavaliers ... Manet in 1859-1860.' 4
In 1954, a Study of a Head after Couture, was lent by Denys Sutton (1917-1991) to an exhibition in Chicago and New York. 5
Unknown artist, Study of a Head after Couture, Private collection
According to the catalogue, this was a signed oil, 20 x 16 inches, painted during Whistler's early days in Paris (1855-59), after one of the twenty-seven sketches of heads that Couture had made in preparation for Les Enrôlements des volontaires de 1792, which was commissioned by Louis Napoleon in 1848. Couture's original sketch is now in the Cleveland Museum of Art. The whereabouts of the copy is unknown; from a photograph, the compilers doubt the attribution.
Technique
Composition
Couture, 'Romains de la décadence', Musée d'Orsay
It is not known which figures were copied by Whistler from Thomas Couture's Romains de la Décadence, 1847, oil on canvas, 472 × 772 cm, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Technique
Unknown.
Conservation History
Unknown.
Frame
Unknown.
History
Provenance
- 1857: probably commissioned by Charles Phelps Williams (1804-1879).
- 1858: probably sent to C. P. Williams and his wife, Georgia Palmer Babcock (Mrs C. P. Williams) (1837–1910), in Stonington, Connecticut.
According to Thomas Armstrong (1832-1911), one of Whistler's commissions from 'a whaling captain' was to paint a copy after an unspecified group in Thomas Couture's Romains de la décadence, then in the Musée du Luxembourg; there is no further record of it. 6
Exhibitions
No exhibitions are recorded.
Bibliography
Catalogues Raisonnés
- Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 18) as "Copy after a Group in Couture's 'Romains de la décadence' ".
Authored by Whistler
- None.
Catalogues 1855-1905
- None.
Journals 1855-1905
- None.
Monographs
- None.
Books on Whistler
- Fleming, Gordon, The Young Whistler 1834-66, London, Boston, Sydney, 1978, p. 134.
- Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 72-73.
- Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 171.
- Robertson, Pamela, 'Whistler's St Luc', in Hermens, Erma et al. (eds.), Connecting Whistler, Glasgow, 2010, pp. 10-15 (Online).
Books, General
- Lamont, L. M., (ed.), Thomas Armstrong, C. B.: A Memoir, London, 1912, pp. 178-79.
On Couture:
- Bertauts-Couture, Georges, Thomas Couture, 1815-1879, Paris, 1932, painting by Couture repr.
Catalogues 1906-Present
- Sweet, Frederick A. (ed.), Sargent, Whistler and Mary Cassatt, Art Institute of Chicago and Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1954, cat. no. 92, repr. painting formerly attributed to Whistler.
Journals 1906-Present
- None.
Websites
On Couture:
- Musée d’Orsay website at www.musee-orsay.fr.
Unpublished
- Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 468) 'Group from "Decadence des romains".'
Other
- None.
Notes:
1: Card No. 3338, Comte Alfred Émilien O'Hara van Nieuwerkerke (1811-1892) to Whistler, GUW #04523.
2: Lamont 1912 [more], pp. 178-79.
3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 18).
4: P. Robertson 2010 [more], at p. 12.
5: Exhibition catalogue Chicago and New York 1954 [more], p. 76.
6: Lamont 1912 [more], pp. 178-79.