The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Whistler's Copy after 'La Réunion des cavaliers', of the School of Velázquez dates from his student days in Paris, and was probably painted in October 1858 or early in the following year.

1856: On 17 June 1856, Whistler, sponsored by Marc-Charles-Gabriel Gleyre (1806-1874), obtained permission to enter the Musées Impériaux, Paris, 'pour les jours d'étude' (on study days). ¹

1858: According to the Pennells, Ignace-Henri-Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) remembered Whistler copying a 'group of cavaliers' after a painting by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) (presumably the picture that entered the Louvre in 1851). ² Fantin-Latour is said to have met Whistler at the Louvre on 7 October 1858, which suggests that Whistler's copy of the 'group of cavaliers' dates from late 1858 or early 1859.

As in the cases of several other copies, including Copy after a Picture of an Inundation y016, Copy after Odier's 'Episode de la retraite de Moscou' y017, Copy after a Group in Couture's 'Romains de la décadence' y018 and Copy after Boucher's 'Diane au bain' y020, there is no record in the Archives du Louvre of Whistler being registered with permission to copy La Réunion des cavaliers.

Images

Subject

Titles

Alternative titles have been suggested:

• 'group of cavaliers' (1908, Pennell). ³
• 'Cavaliers' (1945/1955, J. W. Revillon). ⁴
• "Copy after 'La Réunion des cavaliers', of the School of Velázquez" (1980, YMSM). ⁵

Description

School of Velázquez, 'La Réunion des cavaliers', Musée du Louvre

Whistler copied part of the painting reproduced above, which was at that time attributed to Velázquez. The original shows a group of three men in the left foreground, and ten more distributed to the right. They are dressed in long boots, clothes and cloaks of rich colours, with contrasting sashes and lace collars, broad-brimmed hats with feathers, and some have swords. It is not known which figures were copied by Whistler.

Comments

J. McN. Whistler, Cavalier, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Several drawings done by Whistler about 1854 (before he left America), including Cavalier m0167 (reproduced above) and 'Then Sir - I am the King of Spain!!!' m0166, indicate Whistler's interest in the flamboyant costumes of imaginary cavaliers. They may have been influenced by his readings of Le Sage's The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santinane (1715-1735), and Cervantes' Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605).

Technique

Composition

School of Velázquez, La Réunion des cavaliers, Musée du Louvre

The painting copied by Whistler has been variously described as La Réunion des cavaliers, Gathering of Gentlemen, and (on the Louvre website) A Meeting of Thirteen People. ⁶ Once owned by María Cayetana de Silva, 13th Duchess of Alba, it was acquired as a work of Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez (1599-1660) by the Musée du Louvre in 1851 from Ferd. Laneuville for 6500 francs (£260), and was then called Réunion de portraits (Gathering of portraits). ⁷ For some time attributed to the School of Velázquez, it was recently attributed to Juan Battista Martinez del Mazo (ca 1612–1667), Velasquez's pupil and son-in-law. It may have originally been a section of a larger panoramic figure composition by Velázquez and Mazo. ⁸

Édouard Manet, Les petits cavaliers after Velázquez, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

It was later copied by Edouard Manet (1832-1883); his etching and aquatint copy, reproduced above, is dated 1874-1883. ⁹

Technique

Unknown.

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• Unknown.

Exhibitions

It was not exhibited in Whistler's lifetime.

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. 19) as "Copy after 'La Réunion des cavaliers', of the School of Velázquez".

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, p. 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 the 'School of Velázquez' painting:

• Curtis, Charles, Velazquez and Murillo, New York, 1883, cat. no. 25.
• López-Rey, José, Velázquez: A Catalogue Raisonné of his Oeuvre, London, 1963, repr. pl. 223.

On Manet:

• Rouart, Denis and Daniel Wildenstein, Édouard Manet. Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols., Geneva and Paris, 1975, vol. 1, cat. no. 21.

Catalogues 1906-Present

On the 'School of Velázquez' painting and Manet's painting:

• Tinterow, Gary, and Geneviève Lacambre, Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting, New Haven and London, 2003, p. 206.

Journals 1906-Present

• Reff, Theodore, ‘Copyists in the Louvre 1850-70’, Art Bulletin, vol. 46, December 1964, pp. 552-59, at p. 556.

Websites

On the 'School of Velázquez' painting:

• Musée du Louvre website, at http://cartelen.louvre.fr.

On Manet's etching:

• Rijksmuseum website at https://www.rijksmuseum.nl.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 466) 'Cavaliers'.

Other

• None.