The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 probably dates from between 1875 and 1877. ¹

On 18 September 1875, Whistler's mother Anna Matilda Whistler (1804-1881) mentioned Whistler's 'Moonlight pictures', including 'one lately finished of Cremorne Gardens at Chelsea.' ²

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3, Freer Gallery of Art

Cremorne, No. 1, Fogg Art Museum

Cremorne Gardens, Chelsea, was closed to the public in 1877, so Whistler's series of six known nocturnal paintings of them must date from before then. Cremorne, No. 1 y163, Cremorne Gardens, No. 2 y164 and Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 y165 are very close in date, technique and treatment of the subject.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• Probably ' "Nocturne in Black & Gold No. 2", Cremorne' (1888, Whistler). ³
• Probably 'Nachtstück in Schwarz und Gold: Cremorne' (1888, III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Munich). ⁴
• 'Nocturne, Cremorne Gardens, No. 3' (1905, ISSPG). ⁵
• 'Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3' (YMSM, 1980). ⁶

The numbering of these Cremorne Nocturnes is somewhat arbitrary. To avoid confusion, the numbers 1 and 2 were assigned as follows: Cremorne, No. 1 y163, and Cremorne Gardens, No. 2 y164. The painting here under discussion is therefore 'Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3' (even though Whistler probably called it No. 2).

Description

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3, Freer Gallery of Art

A dark night scene, in horizontal format. Stretching from right to left, reaching three-quarters of the way across the canvas, is a three-storey building with faintly lit windows, and a few figures standing on the ground in front of it.

Site

Cremorne pleasure gardens, in London, closed to the public in 1877. Curry suggested that this was painted from 'the old hotel on the grounds, or else Ashburnham Hall', and he also noted the presence of a 'couple swiftly departing' into the darkness, subtly implying a sexual clandestine relationship. ⁷

Whistler's paintings of Cremorne include Cremorne, No. 1 y163, Cremorne Gardens, No. 2 y164, Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 y165, Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Gardens y166, Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel y169, and Nocturne in Black and Gold: The Falling Rocket y170.

Whistler's neighbour and pupil, the artist Walter Greaves (1846-1930) painted several nocturnes of Cremorne, three of which were exhibited in London at the Goupil Gallery in 1911 (cat. nos. 29, 34, 67). ⁸

Technique

Technique

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3, Freer Gallery of Art

Painted very thinly, the paint barely tinted and brushed lightly on the canvas, and areas rubbed or scraped down. A few details (such as the windows) are painted with fine linear brushstrokes. The figures were painted more thickly but then appear to have been partly rubbed out.

Conservation History

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3, photograph, 1980

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3, Freer Gallery of Art

Earlier photographs suggest it has darkened, though this might partly be the result of lighting and the photographic process.

According to the Freer Gallery of Art records, heavy varnish was partially removed in 1921. The painting was relined and resurfaced in 1925, resurfaced in 1931, cleaned and resurfaced in 1935 and 1950. Ben Johnson noted in 1965 that retouchings on the fence had whitened, and the varnish was discoloured; it was cleaned and revarnished, inpainted and again varnished.

Frame

ca 1919: Flat Whistler frame, American.

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3, framed

It has been regilded.

History

Provenance

• 1890/1905: bought by Charles Conder (1868-1909).
• 1890/1918: with Galerie Levesque, Paris, at some time.
• 1919: sold by Percy Moore Turner (1877-1950), London, to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, for $12,517.50;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

In November 1877 Whistler offered 'two Cremornes' to Alfred Chapman (1839-1917) for £80, and Chapman agreed to purchase one, Cremorne y168, which was either sold or delivered to him by Charles Augustus Howell (1840?-1890) in November 1877. ⁹ Unfortunately it is not certain what these were.

Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 y165was bought by the Australian born artist Charles Conder (1868-1909), either after 1890 when he arrived in Paris, or after 1894 in London, and was lent by him to the Whistler Memorial exhibition in London in 1905.

Exhibitions

• 1888: Probably III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1888 (cat. no. 56) as 'Nachtstück in Schwarz und Gold: Cremorne'.
• 1905: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 50) as 'Nocturne, Cremorne Gardens, No. 3'.

In Whistler's list of paintings for Munich the size of the painting 'Nachtstück in Schwarz und Gold: Cremorne' was given as 85 x 70 cm framed, and it was valued at £500. ¹⁰ The frames are estimated at between 20 and 25 cm on average. When this size is compared with the sizes given for Nocturne: Black and Gold - The Fire Wheel y169 and Nocturne: Grey and Gold - Chelsea Snow y174 (106 x 83 and 85 x 69 cm framed, respectively), and to the other Cremorne canvases, Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3 y165 is the only one that corresponds to these dimensions.

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot be lent.

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. 165), plate 91, as 'Nocturne: Cremorne Gardens, No. 3'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Probably III. Internationale Kunst-Ausstellung, Königlicher Glaspalast, Munich, 1888 (cat. no. 56) as 'Nachtstück in Schwarz und Gold: Cremorne'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 50) as 'Nocturne, Cremorne Gardens, No. 3'.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907 (cat. no. 402).
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, p. 189, repr. p. 191.
• Holden, Donald, Whistler Landscapes and Seascapes, New York, 1969, pl. 11, p. 43.
• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, repr. f.p. 60.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908 (cat. no. 53).
• Sutton, Denys, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolours, London, 1966, pl. 81.

Books, General

• Lawton, Thomas, Freer: a Legacy of Art, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1993, p. 200, fig. 137.
• Spassky, Natalie, with Linda Bantel, Doreen Bolger Burke, Meg Perlman, and Amy L. Walsh, American Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. 2, A Catalogue of Works by Artists Born between 1816 and 1845, New York, 1985, p. 367, on Cremorne Gardens, No. 2.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 81, 124, 293, pl. 28.
• Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948, p. 15 (19.12).

EXHIBITION

• Loan Collection of Works by James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, 1912 (cat. no. 4).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1919.12a-b.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 87) 'Nocturne, Cremorne Gardens No: 3'.

Other

• None.