The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Santa Maria della Salute, Venice dates from 1880. ¹

According to the American artist Otto Henry Bacher (1856-1909), who was with Whistler in Venice in the summer and autumn of 1880:

'Another painting made in Venice was from a window of the Casa Jankovitz, representing the Salute and a great deal of sky and water, with the buildings very small. He drew the latter in pen and ink, and worked over them for days, ... The finished picture looked so simple that, unless one had seen the process, he would have thought it the work of one sitting. One criticism only was expressed: it was much lower in tone than nature.' ²

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Santa Maria della Salute, Venice' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

Described by Otto Bacher:

'the Salute and a great deal of sky and water, with the buildings very small. ...The clouds which appeared day after day were drawn in pastels... he took a big brush, mixed a general tone, and drew it across the buildings, next applying a general tone for the water. The sky was painted a blue which was carefully applied around the forms of the huge, white clouds.' ⁴

Site

Bacher and several other students and followers of Frank Duveneck (1848-1919) were staying at the Casa Jankovitz on the Riva Schiavoni in 1880, and Whistler also took a room there. It had a view of San Giorgio to left, then the Giudecca, Sta Maria della Salute and the Grand Canal, and at far right, the Doge's Palace at the far end of the Riva degli Schiavoni. Whistler made several pastels and etchings of the view from the windows.

Venetian scene, Corcoran Collection/National Gallery of Art

A view which answers Bacher's description is seen in Whistler's etchings including Upright Venice [232] and Long Venice [211], and in several pastels including Venetian scene m0744 (reproduced above), The Salute; Morning; blue and rose m0745, and The Brown Morning - Winter m0746. However, none of these pastels have any pen and ink or watercolour or oil paint. There is also a tiny pen sketch of the view, Santa Maria della Salute m0735.

Technique

Technique

According to Otto Bacher, Whistler used pen and ink, pastel and paint:

'He drew the [buildings] in pen and ink, and worked over them for days, until their exquisite details were well defined. The clouds ... were drawn in pastels, and on these he labored until their forms were satisfactory. Then he took a big brush, mixed a general tone, and drew it across the buildings, next applying a general tone for the water. The sky was painted a blue which was carefully applied around the forms of the huge, white clouds. The finished picture looked so simple that, unless one had seen the process, he would have thought it the work of one sitting.' ⁵

Although described by Bacher in the context of other oils (see Nocturne: Venice y217), there would appear to be some doubt from his description whether Santa Maria della Salute, Venice y218 was completed in oil or watercolour paint.

Conservation History

Unknown.

History

Provenance

Unknown.

Exhibitions

Unknown.

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. 218), plate 414, as 'Santa Maria della Salute, Venice'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• None.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Bacher, Otto Henry, With Whistler in Venice, 1st edition, New York, 1908 (suppressed for publishing facsimiles of Whistler's letters), pp. 14, 56-57.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• None.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 88).

Other

• None.