FREER/

SACKLER

PUBL.

N

6537

.W4

A4

2003

Pictures at an 1 884 Exhibition

Kenneth John Myers

Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition

Best known asa painterand printmaker, the expatriate American artist lames McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was alsoan influential designer of domestic interiorsand played a crucial role in the development of new approaches to displaying fine art in late-nineteenth- century Britain and America. When Whistler relocated to Europe in 1855, the most important venues for exhibiting contemporary art were the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Parisandthe Royal Academy in London. Along withthe impressionists in Paris, Whistler was one of the first artists to realize that he could better promote his work by taking advantage of exhibition spaces at the commercial art galleries springing up in Paris and London.

Showcasing rarely exhibited oils, watercolors, and pastels, Mr. Whistler's Gallery ex ploresan influential exhibition the artist organized at the Dowdeswells’ gallery in London in May 1884. Notonlydid Whistler selectthe works to be included and decide where they were hung, he also designed the color scheme, furnishings, and picture frames. Hetitled his installation an Arrangement In Flesh Colour & Grey. Whistler’s "arrangement” attracted a great deal of press coverage that spurred attendance and transformed his art exhibition into a widely discussed cultural"event.”

Published by the Freer Ga llery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, in association with Sea la Publishers,

Mr. Whistler's Gallery \s a fascinating and original analysis of Whistler's remarkable aesthetic vision. It will appeal to scholars, design enthusiasts, and allthose interested in nineteenth-century British and American art.

Mr. Whistler’s Gallery

' 'pfMp

Wmmm

Mr. Whistler’s Gallery:

Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition

Kenneth joh n Myers

Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution Scala Publishers

FREER GALLERY OF ART

FR.E6*/sA<^L£/^ PuBL.

N

65-37 , W ,£t A¥

3003

Board of the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

Mrs. Hart Fessenden,

Chair of the Board Mr. Richard M. Danziger,

Vice Chair of the Board Mr. Jeffrey P. Cunard Mrs. Mary Patricia Wilkie Ebrahimi Dr. Roberts. Feinberg Dr. Kurt A. Gitter Mrs. MargaretM. Haldeman Mrs. Richard Helms Mrs. Ann R. Kinney Mr. H. Christopher Luce Mrs. ) ill Hornor Ma Mr. PaulG. Marks Mrs. Elizabeth E. Meyer Mrs. ConstanceC. Miller Mrs. Daniel P. Moynihan Mr. Frank H Pearl Dr. Gursharan Sidhu Mr. MichaelR.Sonnenreich Mr. Abolala Soudavar Professor Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis Mr. Paul F, Walter Ms. Shelby White

Honorary Member Sir Joseph Hotung

First published in 2003 bythe Freer Gallery of Art,

Smithsonian Institution, in association with Scala Publishers Ltd, Gloucester Mansions, 140a Shaftesbury Avenue, London WC2H8HD.

No part ofthe contents of this book maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying orotherwise, without the written permission of Scala Publishers Ltd.

This catalogue is published to accompany the exhibition, Mr . Whistler's Galleries : Avant-Garde in Victorian London (Freer Gallery of Art, November20, 2003— April 4, 2004 ).Mr. Whistler's Galleries is a collaborative exhibition project ofthe Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., andtheVirginia Museum of Fi ne Arts, Richmond. Publication ofthis book has been underwritten bythe Lunder Foundation.

Head of Publications: Lynne Shaner Managing Editor: Mariah Keller Art Director: KateLydon Designer: Misha Anikst Produced by Scala Publishers

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Myers, Kenneth, 1955

Mr. Whistler's gallery: pictures atan 1884 exhibition/ by Kenneth Myers, p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 1-85759-305-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) l. Whistler, jamesMcNeill, 1834-1903 — Exhibitions. 2. Art-Exhibition techniques-Exhibitions. I. Title: Mister Whistler's Gallery. II. Whistler, )ames McNeill, 1834-1903. III. Freer Gallery of Art. IV. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. V. Title. N6537.W4A42003 759.i3~dc2l

The paperused inthis publication meetsthe minimum requirements ofthe American National Standard for Information Science — Permanence of Paperfor Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.49.1984.

Frontispiece: Detail, plate 46 Page 27: Detail, plate 27

Printed and bound in Italy by Editoriale Lloyd s.r.l

s

c

A

L

A.

Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art

Contents

vi Director's Foreword

vii Author's Acknowledgments

l Mr. Whistler's Gallery: The Art of Displaying Art

27 Catalogue

82 Identifying Paintings and Drawings Exhibited at the

Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells Gallery in 1884 85 Reference Catalogue

96 Abbreviations

96 Notes

100 List of Contemporary Exhibition Reviews Cited

100 Selected Bibliography

101 Index of Works

Director’s Foreword

Except for a handful of scholars and antiquarians, few people know about the series of influential art installations that the American painter and printmaker James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) organized in the London in the 1880s. But as Kenneth John Myers shows in this book, Whistler's once controversial installations played a crucial role in the development of modern standards of exhibition design. As much as any other single person, it was Whistler who promoted the idea that artworks should be hung widely apart on lightly colored walls in moderately sized but elegantly appointed rooms. The impact of Whistler's ideas has been so profound that we often assume that the now commonplace preference for spare installations is somehow natural or inevitable. One measure of Whistler's influence is the shock many of us feel when we visit an older style installation, like the ones at Sir John Soane's Museum in London, or the Isabella StewartGardnerMuseum in Boston, oreventhe Barnes Collection in Philadelphia. Myers's research challenges our assumptions as to how art should be displayed by enabling us to imagine ourselves as visitors to one of the most influential of Whistler’s installations, th e Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey that he designed for the exhibition of sixty-seven of his paintings and dra wings at the Dowdeswells’ gallery in London in 1884.

Whistler’s ideas about the display of art had an especially profound effect on a young Detroit art collector named Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), the founder and principal benefactor of this museum. Freer did not see the 1884 exhibition at the Dowdeswells’ gallery. Nor did he see any of the other London installations that Whistler designed in the 1880s. But in 1889 Freer did see a version of the 1884 Dowdeswells' exhibition in New York. Installed in the Flermann Wunderlich Gallery, the New York exhibition included sixty-two paintings and drawings. As in

London in 1884, all the artworks were hung in "flat gold frames, on walls of pink silk, with nothing to keep them company or to distract attention from them but two Chinese vases in 'crushed strawberry’ and 'sang de boeuf”’ (The Critic, 16 March 1889). Freer visited the Wunderlich exhibi- tion shortly after it opened, absorbed ideas for the design of the new home he was planning to build in Detroit, and purchased one of the watercolors, Grey and silver— Liverpool (F1889.3). It was the first paint- ing by Whistler that Freer ever bought. Eleven months later, Freer set off on his first trip to London. On March 4, 1890 he rang Whistler’s doorbell, explained that he was a visiting American, and was admitted to a thrilling interview with the Master. Freer and Whistler talked for an hour. Freer left Whistler's studio with fresh ideas for the decoration of the house in Detroit that he had already begun to build, ten wonderful Whistler etchings of Amsterdam, his first Whistler pastel, a new friend, and the beginning of a life-long interest in Asian art. By the time he died in 1919, Freer had acquired more than twelve hundred works by Whistler including the world famous Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room and approximately thirty-four of the sixty-seven paintings and drawings that Whistler had shown at the Dowdeswell's gallery in 1884.

Freer's close friendship with Whistler shaped both his collecting inter- ests and his understanding as to how art should be displayed. As Freer's collection grew, he added Whistlerian-style exhibition spaces to his home in Detroit, spaces which subsequently served as models for the galleries that he and his architect designed for his museum in Washington. As one walks through the Freer Gallery of Art today, the scale, shape, height, color, and lighting of the galleries all express ideas and values that Freer took from Whistler.

Author’s Acknowledgments

Publication of Mr. Whistler's Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition and the organization of the related exhibition Mr Whistler's Galleries: Avant-Garde in Victorian London are the highlights of the Freer's year- long commemoration of the centenary of Whistler's death in 1903. Many people have contributed to the success of these projects. I espe- cially want to thank Michael Brand, Kathleen Morris, and the rest of our colleagues at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts who have collaborated with us on the exhibition; Cheryl Sobas, exhibition coordinator at the Freer; and David Park Curry and Kenneth John Myers, co-curators of the exhibition.

Julian Raby

Director, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery

I dedicate this book to my parents, Nathaniel Charles Myers, J r. , and Frances lean Goldberg Myers. Their love has sustained me in good times and bad, does so today, and will do so hereafter.

In the spring of 2000, I proposed that the Freer commemorate the cen- tenary of Whistler's death in 1903 by creating a new version of the influ- ential Flesh Colour & Grey exhibition he designed in 1884 My first thanks go to Milo C. Beach, former director of the Freer, Thomas W. Lentz, former deputy director, and Vidya Dehejia, former chief curator and acting director, each of whom enthusiastically supported my pro- posal. I especially want to thank Dr. Raby, current director, for suggest- ing that we expand the project to include a new version of a second Whistler exhibition, and for giving me the opportunity to write this book.

Several friends read all or part of the manuscript. My deepest thanks go to Anne Harrell of Virginia Commonwealth University, Alan Wallach of the College of William and Mary, and Debra Diamond of the Freer and Sackler Galleries. My research was made immeasurably easier by Nigel Thorpe, Director of the Centre for Whistler Studies at the University of Glasgow, who provided me with pre-publication access to the magisteri- al on-line edition of Whistler’s correspondence that the Centre launched in june 2003. My greatest scholarly debt is to Margaret F. MacDonald, Principal Research Fellow at the Centre, co-author of one of the two indispensable catalogues raisonne to Whistler’s paintings and drawings, and sole author of the other, who allowed me to read her unpublished essay on the 1884 exhibition and helped with the identification of sever- al paintings. Interns Kate Hutchinson, Eileen Kim, Katherine Leland, Kathryn Haesller, jessica Apuzzo, and Sunni Morgan, together with vol- unteer Pete Koltnow each played a key role in collecting information,

tracking down images, and proofing the manuscript. I could not have completed the book without the help of (osephine Rodgers who among all her other responsibilities managed to get all the reproductions to the printer in time — a thankless task much like herding cats.

Colleagues at the Freer and Sackler galleries have been very generous of their time and expertise. A researcher is only as good as the library support he or she is lucky enough to receive. Much thanks to Mike Smith, Yue Shu, and Reiko Yoshimura at the Freer/Sackler Library; and to Cecilia Chin, Barbara Insidioso, and Patricia Lynagh at the Smithsonian's American Art/National Portrait Gallery Library. I am espe- cially grateful to Kathryn Phillips who patiently bore the brunt of my many interlibrary loan requests. Among the registrars and art handlers,

I want especially to thank Tim Kirk, Christina Popenfus, Elizabeth Duley, and Susan Kitsoulis. John Winter, Karen Sasaki, our contract frame con- servator William Lewin, and especially Jane Norman each helped to con- firm my hunch that many of the unusual Whistler frames at the Freer could be traced back to the 1884 exhibition. One of my greatest debts is to John Tsantes, head of the photography department, who was a pillar of strength and goodwill when it seemed that everything that could go wrong was going wrong. The faults of the book are my own, but the fact that it came out so wonderfully is due to the work of editors and design- ers both at the Freer/Sackler galleries and at Scala Publishers. In addi- tion to Dennis Kois, Lynne Shaner, and Kate Lydon, I especially want to thank the managing editor Mariah Keller, the project editor Gillian Paul, the copy editor Alison Walker and the designer Misha Anikst.

Many people at the Freer and elsewhere helped with the acquisition of images. Of my many colleagues at the Freer, I especially want to thank

Sharron Greene, Patricia Adams, Robert Harrell, Michael Bryant, Neil Greentree, Mia Vollkommer, and Rebecca Barker. Other friends and col- leagues who helped with images include Dr. and Mrs. John E. Larkin; Jim and Gina Liautaud; the owners of Blue and gold — The Schooner, The Yellow Room, and Convalescent; Fred Hill at Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc. in New York, Mia Schlappi at Christie’s, New York; Julie Aronson and Rebecca Herman at the Cincinnati Art Museum; Lucy Patrick at Florida State University; Susan Galassi, Diane Farynyk, and Katherine M. Gerlough at the Frick Collection; Eric W. Baumgartner at Hirschl & Adler Galleries; Pamela Robertson at the Hunterian Art Gallery at the University of Glasgow; Constance Carter at the Library of Congress; Louis Reed and Jennifer Hardin at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida; Mikki Carpenter at the Museum of Modern Art; Franklin Kelly, Charlie Brock, Neal Turtell, and Barbara Goldstein Wood at the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.); Anne Hodge and Louise Morgan at the National Gallery of Ireland; Janet Axten at the St. Ives Museum; and Niki Pollock at the Glasgow University Library. I also want to thank lain Harrison at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery; Sue Grinols of the Fine Art Museums of San Francisco; Kim Orcutt, Marjorie B. Cohn, and Dorothy Davila at the Harvard University Art Museums; Carol Troyon, Liza beth Dion, and Danielle Catera at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Leo Kelly at the Terra Museum of American Art; and Julia Alexander, Tim Goodhue, and Melissa Gold Fournier at the Yale Center for British Art. Whistler's painting The Yellow Room (Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL), was photographed by Thomas U. Gessler.

Detail, T. Raffles Davison,

New Entrance Vestibule and Gallery The Fine Art Society,

Engraving from The British Architect,

December 16, 1881

Mr. Whistler’s Gallery:

The Art of Displaying Art

Figure l.

" Notes"-" Ha rmon ies'1-" Noctu rnes” (London: Dowdeswelland Dowdeswells, 1884), p.3. Freer Gallery of Art Library, Gift of Charles Lang Freer.

S

> V

2^

L ’ E N V O I E.

A picture is finished when all trace of the means used to bring about the end has disappeared.

To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incom- plete and unfit for view.

Industry in Art is a necessity, — not a virtue, — and any evidence of the same, in the production, is a blemish, not a quality ; — a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, for work alone will efface the footsteps of work.

The work of the master reeks not 01 the sweat of the brow, — suggests no effort, — and is finished from its beginning.

The completed task of perseverance only has never been begun, and will remain unfinished to eternity, — a monu- ment of goodwill and foolishness.

“ There is one that laboureth, and taketh pains, and maketh haste, and is so much the more behind.”

The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter, — perfect in its bud as in its bloom, — with no reason to explain its presence, — no mission to fulfil, — a joy to the artist, — a delusion to the philanthropist, a puzzle to the botanist, an accident of sentiment and alliteration to the literary man.

trwB — f

■

ill* pasta***

. : ' . . . ; .

. • ■■ : - ' ..

■ mm® ■ in:

,'nn-

■ ■ ■ ■ - n

■ ■ . . ■ - ; . . . ■

Although now best known as a painter and printmaker, the expatriate American artist james McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) was also an influentialdesignerof both privateand public interiors, and hisworkasan exhibition designer played a crucial role in the development of modernist styles of displaying art. Unfortunately, the importance of Whistler’s work as an exhibition designer has been obscured by the inherently ephemeral nature of a 11 interior decorat ions. Whistler began to experiment with new ways of installing art in the mid 1870s, but his most influential installations date from the 1880s when he shook up the staid art world of Victorian London by mounting a series of meticulously designed one-man shows at up-scale art galleries on New Bond Street. Whistler controlled every aspect of these installations: he designed distinctive frames for his art, painted the baseboards and crown moldings so that they harmonized with the colored fabrics he used to cover the walls, and selected carpets, furnishings, and potted plants that repeated the color harmonies established by the walls and carpeting. Whistler even designed color- coordinated outfits for the guards. As modern museum directors and gallery owners know, good design is good advertising. Whistler's insta llations were unlike anything that contemporary art lovers had ever seen. They promoted his work by attracting reporters, collectors, and the curious. Theyturned hisexhibitions i nto widely discussed happenings.

Whistler's installations attracted attention from the press and the public but, even more importantly, they also facilitated and encouraged a more contemplative relationship between the art viewer and the art object. By the 1880s, almost all of Whistler's paintings and prints were both delicate in tone and small in scale, and therefore showed badly when displayed in the crowded confines of a typical mid-century art exhibition.

The exhibition galleries that Whistler designed were comparatively empty and spare, better suited to the disinterested appreciation of the formal beauties of a work of art. Whistler designed his installations to showcase hisown work, but in doing so he helped establish a style of exhibition that still 1 nfluences the way we display and see art today.

Two of Whistler's installation designs were especially influential: an Arrangement in White & Yellow that he created for an exhibition of fifty- one of his etchings in February 1883, and an Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey that he developed for an exhibition of sixty-seven of his oil paintings, watercolors, and pastels in May 1884. Both exhibition designs were widely discussed in the contemporary press; both successfully promoted attendance and sales; and both were recreated in commercial art galleries in the United States. The 1884 exhibition was especially controversial, as the design helped to focus attention on small paintings 1 and watercolors that challenged the widespread assumption of many mid- nineteenth century art lovers that in order to be "important" a work of art had to be both large in size and highly worked. This essay is in two parts.

Figure 2.

Samuel F. B. Morse,

Gallery of the Louvre, 1831-33. Courtesy of the Daniel). Terra Collection,

Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago, Illinois.

Mr. Whistler's Gallery

2

The first discusses the development of Whistler's ideas about exhibition design up to the close of Arrangement in White & Yellow in the spring of 1883. The second focuses on Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey, exploring the genesis, short life, and subsequent impact of Whistler's path-breaking 1884 installation.

The Art of Displaying Art

Styles of art change. Indeed, general survey museums like the Louvre or the National Gallery of Art in London usually install their collections chronologically by national school, precisely so that visitors can reenact the history of western art by walking from Greek vases to early Netherlandish paintings to nineteenth-century French Impressionism. Less obviously, viewers of art change. A cubist still life by Picasso or Braque would have bewildered the most sophisticated seventeenth-century art lover. No one in the eighteenth-century would have possessed the interpretive frames of reference needed to make sense of "modern" art. Butthose interpretive skills are comparatively common today.

The art of displaying art a Iso changes. From the invention of the picture gallery in the early Renaissance until the last quarter of the nineteenth century, paintings were generally displayed "salon style.” As shown in Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and George du Maurier's Exhibition at the Royal Academy, gallery walls were almost completely covered with large paintings holding the center of walls, and smaller worksextending to the sides, floor, and ceiling. Frames touched frames, leaving no room for labels. At best, each painting was identified by a number keyed to a checklist, which provided the artist's name and the work's title. Lighting was by skylights or, after i860, by gaslight, but

Figure 3 -

George du Maurier,

Exhibition atthe Royal Academy . Cartoon in Punch Almanack for 1879 Decemberg, 1878.

Photograph courtesy of Florida State University.

Figure 4.

whatever the source of illumination, many works were either underlit or overlit, ordominated by biggeror more brightly colored neighbors. By the 1960s, salon-style hangs had almost completely disappeared, surviving mainly in geographically isolated muse urns far removed from the centers of art activities. Up-to-date museums had largely adopted the “white cube” style hang promoted by influential exh ibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the 1920s and 1930s. The main features of the cube are familiar: whitewalls, neutral lighting, paintings centered along the best line of sight on largely empty walls, and discrete labels next to each painting. Unlike salon-style hangs which emphasize the ensemble, white cube installations focus the viewer's attention on each work of art as a self- contained aesthetic object, implicitlysuggestingthateach isa masterwork.1

There were many causes for the gradual abandonment of the salon-style hang and the emergence of the white cube. At a fundamental level, the transition in exhibition design was made possible by and promoted the development ofthe idea of works of art as self-contained aesthetic objects. Unlike earlier models of art appreciation, the idea ofthe aesthetic assumes that art objects should be valued neither for their accuracy as repre-

sentations nor for their ability to teach moral lessons but solely for the success with which they organize their elements into a coherent, and therefore beautiful, whole. As leading artists, dealers, art writers, collectors, and viewers began to redefine the value ofthe art object, they putanewemphasisonthe importance ofthe subjective moment when individuals experience the internal consistencies of an artwork, and discovered that it was difficult to appreciate a work of visual art in that way when it was surrounded by a crush of dissimilar works all clamoring for notice. The popularization ofthe aesthetic thus promoted the realization thatworksofvisualartshould be set apart — both mentally, inthe mindof the viewer, and physically, onthewall.

When Whistler arrived in Europe as a young art student in 1855, the commercialartmarketsin Parisand Londonwere stillintheirinfancy. In both cities the rapid growth ofthe middle classes had already spurred 3 demand for art and enabled ambitious booksellers, print-dealers, and frame-makers to sell art as a sideline, but in both cities the commercial art market was still dominated by auction houses that sold whatever kinds of goods they could make money on. Neither city boasted more than a

Mr Whistler's Gallery

handful of full-time art dealers — and few of them were successful enough to maintain a gallery. Although progressive artists chafed atthe powerof the governmentally supported arts organizations, the only reliable path to a successful career was by showing at the annual exhibitions at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Royal Academy in London. Exhibitions at both the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy were hung salon style, and although Whistler sent etchings and paintings to one or both of the academies annually from 1859 until 1865, by the early 1870s he was deeply frustrated by the aesthetic conservatism ofthe selecting jurors and his inability to control where or how his submissions were displayed.3 Whistler continued to exhibit at the Paris Salon and Royal Academy intermittently from 1867 until 1872, when his now famous Arrangement in Grey and Black: Portrait ofthe Painter’s Mother (Musee 4 d'Orsay, Paris) was reluctantly accepted for exhibition at the Royal Academy only after the painter Sir William Boxall (1800-79) had threatened to resign from the Academy if it was rejected. Whistler never sent another submission to the Royal Academy, andhedidnotsendany more worktothe ParisSalon until 1882 , by which timethetidesoftaste had begun to shift and he was confident that his submissions would be treated sympathetically.

The timing of Whistler's abandonment of the academies was no doubt influenced by his invention, in 1871, ofthe low-toned night landscapes that he titled "nocturnes,'' which are especially difficult to display and light effectively. Asthe influential American artcritic lames lackson |arves (1818-88) observed in a newspaper article published in 1879, a Whistler nocturne has to be displayed "precisely in the light and situation for which itwasdesigned bytheartist, [or] itseemstobeasformlessandvoidasthe

creative principle in a state of chaos. ... In any unfavorable location it presents a meaningless jumble of brush strokes, guiltlessofartisticform and relief"4 In comparison to the academies, private art ga lie ries offered Whistler much greater control over the selection, installation, and lighting of his work. Whistler painted his first nocturnes during the summer or, more probably, the autumn of 1871. That November he exhibited two of them in a group exhibition at the non-profit Dudley Gallery in London.5 From that time on, Whistler relied on private galleries and international expositions as the primary venues for displaying and marketing hiswork.

After 1871, Whistler participated in numerous group exhibit ions both at private galleries and at many of the most important of the late nineteenth-century expositions, but it was his one-man shows that had the greatest impact on the subsequent history of installation design.6 Except for posthumous "memorial exhibitions," single-artist shows were still uncommon in mid-nineteenth-century Parisand London, although the Paris dealer Paul Du ran d-Rue l (1831-1922) gave Theodore Rousseau (1832-83) a one-man show in 1866, and both Courbet (1819-77) and Edouard Manet (1832-83) organized exhibitions of their own work in opposition to the official Paris salon in 1867. Whistler was in Paris in the spring of 1867, so he undoubtedly knew of the Courbet and Manet installations. Whether or not he saw either exhibition, Whistler's awareness of them probably contributed to his desire to commandeer a gallery for himself.

Whistler organized his first one-man exhibition in 1873, and a second, larger one in 1874. The 1873 exhibition opened in January at Durand-Ruel's gallery in Paris. Durand-Ruel was a politically conservative but

aesthetically adventurous dealer, who handled a wide range of artists, including many of the independents who later became known as "impressionists." In 1874 he organized the famously disastrous auction of impressionist paintings. The following year he hosted the second impressionist exhibition.7 Whistler's 1873 exhibition at Durand-Ruel's gallery was small, consisting of seven paintings and several drawings. The paintings included Whistler's stylistically innovative self-portrait, Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter ( Detroit Institute of Arts), the Freer’s Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony, and two unidentified nocturnes.8 Durand-Ruel does not seem to have issued a catalogue, and Whistler's work was probably installed in a secondary room. None of the surviving evidence suggests that Durand-Ruel allowed Whistler to change the decor ofthespaceinwhichhisworkwashung, although one review suggests that Whistler was already challenging conventional exhibition practice by insisting that the gallery "put a label over each of [the paintings] showing the titles he had given them." All of Whistler's titles were musical — "arrangements," "variations,” "harmonies,” "nocturnes" — so the use of title labels would have implied his avant-garde belief that paintings were to be appreciated not as ' representations but as abstract com binations of color and line.9

Whistler’s second single-artistshowdrew moreattention. Itopened at the Flemish Gallery in Pall Mall, London, on |une4, 1874, closing two months later at the end of July. Whistler mounted the exhibition himself, taking a year's lease on an empty space, and paying for all his renovations and improvements. 10 The exhibition included thirteen major paintings, thirty- six drawings, and fifty etchings, and introduced several of the innovations that would characterize Whistler’s later installations. The walls were

painted gray. The floor was covered with yellow mats. Whistler installed white blinds beneath the skylights in order to reduce glare. Couches and chairs were covered with a light maroon cloth. Flowers in blue pots were scattered a bout the room. The exhibition checklist was wrapped in coarse brown paper covers. Art works were spaced more generously than in a salon-style hang, although the installation was more crowded than Whistler's later one-man shows would be. Large paintings were hung high, probably at leastfive feet above the floor. Smallerworks were hung below larger ones; in some cases large paintings were hung above medium-sized oil sketches that were placed above still smaller works. While the paintings and drawings established a strong vertical element, the etchings and dry points were mounted above a wainscoting, forming a line at eye-level around the room. Paintings were displayed in gilded frames, many of which Whistler painted with a japonesque wave-pattern 5 design. Prints were exhibited in plain wooden frames. As Robin Spencer was the first to explain, the installation created a “vertical/horizontal rhythm ABABAB AB,” encouraging the viewer to proceed around the room while alternately moving close to the wall in order to examine the prints and drawings, and then stepping back from the wall to look at the larger paintingsthat were hung high.11

The 1874 exhibition was an important step toward the more revolutionary and influential insta Hat ions that Whistler organized in the 1880s, but it was a financial extravagance. Whistler may have sold one or two of the nocturnes that were included in the show, but he could not have sold many of the major paintings since most were borrowed from collectors and were therefore not available for sale. While Whistler's income from the exhibition must have been limited, his costs were high.

Mr Whistler's Gallery

4

44. Fondamenta Dei Mori.

45. Bead Stringers.

46. Sunset ; red and gold — The Gondolier.

47. Fishing Boats.

48. Salute — Sundown.

49. Sunset ; red and gold — Salute.

50. Winter Evening.

51. Campo Sta. Martin — Winter Evening.

52. Courtyard.

53. The Brown Morning — Winter.

‘

vi

ft

4

tr

JVmlcti by T. Winy, 21, Weilingitm Street, *>..( • -

/

Figure 5-

Edward W. Godwin,

Annotations and sketch made inthe exhibition catalogue,! /enice Pastels (London: Fine Art Society, 1881).

Whistler Collection, Birnie Philip Bequest, Glasgow University Library.

Rent and repairs alone ran to at least 400 pounds sterling. By way of comparison, in 1874 the annual lease on Whistler's thirteen-room house and studio in Chelsea was only 80 pounds sterling. 12

Whistler did not mount another single-artist exhibition until lanuary 1881. The long delay can be explained in at least two complementary ways. In personal terms, Whistler's artistic interests changed and his financial situation worsened. Whistler had been able to risk the 1874 exhibition in part because he knew that he had the financial support of the Liverpool shipping magnate Frederick Leyland (1831-92), who was his most important patron. From the summer of 1876 until the spring of 1877, Whistler spent almost all of his time painting his glorious design for the dining room in Ley land’s London town house. Creation of the Leyland dining room, which Whistler titled Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, was an artistic triumph, but led to a financially disastrous falling- out with Leyland (see figure 8). Yet despite the loss of Ley land's patronage, Whistler continued to spend money lavishly, building an architecturally innovative home and studio (the White House, which was begun in 1877 and completed in 1878), and pursuing a quixotic libel suit against the art critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) in 1878. Wh istler won the Ruskin suit, but collected only a farthing in damages and by May 1879 he was forced to declare bankruptcy. Eager to escape London, he convinced the Fine Art Society to commission a series of twelve etchings of Venice, took his advance, and decamped for the Adriatic. Whistler did not return to London until late November 1880. During this period Whistler could not have afforded to mount a show of his own work if he had wanted to, but he also seems to have concluded that the responsibilities and financial risks of running his own gallery outweighed any potential rewards.

The long hiatus between Whistler's 1874 exhibition and his next si ng le- artist show can also be explained in terms of ongoing changes in the organization of the London art market. One major reason why Whistler mountedthe Pall Mallshow himselfwasthatatthattimethere were few substantia l commercial art galleries in the city and none were willing to put his installation ideas into practice. That situation quickly changed, however, with the opening of the Fine Art Society in 1876, the Grosvenor Gallery in 1877, and the Dowdeswelland Dowdeswells Gallery in 1878. The rapid expansion of the commercial art market provided Whistler with several congenial alternatives to the Royal Academy, enabling him to market and publicize his work without having to mount his own shows.13

As the London art marketchanged, sodidthe nature ofWhistler’swork.

The grand size of the exhibition spaces at the Paris Salon and the Royal Academy encouraged the production of paintings that were large enough 7 to stand out in the visually crowded field of a salon-style hang, garner the attention of reviewers, and winthe prizesthatwerethestandard route to fame and success. Although Whistler rarely painted really big canvasses, mostofthe majorworks he produced between his 1859 move to London and his 1879 bankruptcy were large enough to command visual attention and — si nee art works were in part priced by size — grand enough to sell for several hundred pounds apiece. Whistler completed two medium-sized landscapes while in Venice, Venice: Nocturne in Blue and Silver: The Lagoon, Venice (1879/1880. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston) and Nocturne:

Blue and Gold— St Mark's, Venice (1879/80. National Museum of Wales, Cardiff), but he spent most of his time there working on small etchings and pastels. Whistler exhibited the Venice pastels at the Fine Art Society in january 1881 and, discovering that they sold well, he apparently decided

Mr Whistler's Gallery

Mr. Whistler's Gallery

to lessen his dependence on extremely wealthy patrons such as Ley land by shifting the focus of his production to smaller and therefore more affordable works in a wide variety of media — prints, watercolors, pastels, and oils. From the Venice pastel exhibition in 1881 until his career retrospective at the Goupil Gallery in London in 1892, every one of Whistler's one-man shows was primarily or (more often) completely devoted to small works. Whistler continued to paint medium- and life- sized portraits during these years — some of friends or family that were never intended for sale, but most on commission — but after Venice he gave up painting larger landscapes almost entirely. Although now best known for his painted nocturnes, the two completed in Venice were the last large nocturnes in oil that Whistler ever painted.

As the format, scale, subject, and style of Whistler's work changed, so 8 too did his strategies for marketing it. During the 1880s, Whistler sent large paintings — mainly recent portraits but a Iso some figure paintings and landscapes from the 1860s or 1870s — to the international expositions, the Paris Salon, and group-shows at prestigious private galleries such as the Grosve nor where they would be reviewed by critics and seen by people of means who might com mission portraits. Whistler sometimes sent smaller works to such venues, but after his return from Venice he most often showed small works in one-man shows at commercial galleries where he had great control over the viewing environment and could bundle small works into a visually striking, attention-catching whole.

Between December 1880 and February 1883, the Fine Art Society gave Whistler three one-man shows, each of which was devoted to Venetian materials. The December 1880 exhibition was small, consisting solely of

the twelve Venice etchings that Whistler had selected to fulfill his commission. The show opened on December linthesmall back room at the society. Whistler supervised the installation but did not design any special decoration. The exhibition received a good deal of attention from the press, but the prints sold slowly and the society considered the show to be a failure. Still, the exhibition effectively announced Whistler's return from Venice, and set the stage for the larger and more elaborate show of his Venice pastels that opened in the society’s main room the following month.14

Although pastels had been a major medium for artistic expression in the eighteenth century, by the middle of the nineteenth century they had fallen from artistic favor and were widely thought of as a "feminine" medium that was best left to women artists and amateurs. Whistler had begun to use pastels in the early 1870s, but until his trip to Venice most of the pastels he had produced were working drawings that were not intended for exhibition or sale. Whistler probably had no intention of making pastels when he arrived in Venice in September 1879, but by late October a long-lasting cold front had swept through the city making it d ifficu It for h i m to etch. Eager to continue working, he turned to pastels. Whistler apparently began to use pastels soon after the weather changed. By the following lanuary, he was eager to let the head of the Fine Art Society know a bout the new drawings. In a letter, he bragged that the new pastels were "tota l [ l]y new and of a brilliancy very different from the customary watercolor — and will sell — I don't see how they can help it," and suggested that the society exhibit them. Whistler completed approximately one hundred pastels before leaving Venice, mostofwhich were drawn between the fall of 1879 and the spring of 1880. 15

Venice Pastels opened at the Fine Art Society on |anuary 29, 1881, and ran until the end of March. It included fifty-three of the best of the Venice pastels. The pastels varied somewhat in size, but most were small- averaging about 8 x 12 inches in size. Although the Society had agreed to mount an exhibition of Whistler's new pastels soon after Whistler suggested it, detailed planning did not start until after the artist returned to London in late November 1880. Not surprisingly, the design of the show seemsto have been something of an improvisation, building on ideasthat

Figure 6.

James McNeill Whistler,

Resting, ca. 1870-73 Chalkand pastel on brown paper.

Period Dowdeswells' gallery-style frame, 1880s, 45/i6 in. wide molding.

Freer Gallery of Art.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer,

F1902.176.

Whistler had developed in the 1870s, but not incorporating the full range of exhibition techniques and strategies that would be employed in his later installations. Unlike the 1874 Flemish Gallery installation, which had included etchings, drawings, and oil studies as well as large paintings, the 1881 exhibition was devoted solely to pastels, although the twelve Venice etchings were again hung in the back room. As he would also do in his 1883, 1884, and 1886 installation designs, Whistler divided the gallery walls into three sections. The main section was covered by a nine-foot high yellow-green cloth, topped by a green-gold crown molding. Beneath this field of ye How-green, a low skirting was painted ye How-gold. Above the crown molding, a narrow frieze was painted the same reddish brown as the ceiling.16 The basic design, but not this specific color scheme, is suggested by Whistler's Design for the Coloring of a Room (see figure 7).

Most of the pastels were hung in a single row around the room, without 9 much space between them, generally at eye-level, although some were double-hung for the sake of variety. The spacing is suggested by a drawing that Whistler's friend Edward W. Godwin (1833-66) hastily sketched on the last page of his copy of the exhibition catalogue (see figure 5). Working with thesocietyandtheframerF. H. Grau, Whistler adapted a fra me that he had used for large paintings during the 1870s, creating a distinctive new fra me consisting of a wide flat fillet surrounded by slim bands of reeding. Whistler was pleased with the frame, and continued to use subtly varied versions of it for small oils, watercolors, and pastels until the early 1890s. 17The 1881 frames were all gilded, most in what one reviewer described as a "rich yellow gold,” but twelve were greenish gold. In his review, Godwin explained that the green-gold frames were “dotted" about the room "with a view to decoration, and eminently successful in attaining it”18 None of

Mr Whistler'sGallery

Mr. Whistler's Gallery

the writers who reviewed the exhibition commented on the lighting, the floor coverings, the gallery furniture, or the dress of the guard, suggesting that Whistler limited his designing mainly to the frames, the coloring of the walls, andthe placement ofthe pastels.

Whistler's third and final exhibition of his Venice mate rials at the Fine Art Society opened on February 17, 1883. It was the first of his shows to incorporate all his mature ideas about what an exhibition could and should be, and it set the pattern for all his subsequent installation designs, including the 1884 exhibition at the Dowdeswells' gallery. The 1883 exhibition consisted of fifty-one etchings — forty-five Venetian scenes and six more recent London subjects. The walls we re again divided into three sections. The wood skirting around the base of the walls was painted bright ye How. Above the skirting, the walls were covered to the 10 height of about ten feet by white felt, which was topped by a crown molding paintedyellow.

The basic concept of the 1883 installation drew on the design vocabulary established by the 1881 installation, but the later plan was much more elaborate. The etchings were hung in specially designed white frames, which were ornamented with a double stripe of brown-red paint. They were probably hung singly at eye-level, although it seems likely that some would have been double hung. One reviewer commented on the unusual spacing, noting that the etchings were "hung far a part." Yellow matting covered the floor. The ceiling was hung with a yellow fabric, known as a velarium, which diffused and colored the light from the skylights in the ceiling. The fire place surround was made ofyellow tiles. The entrance to the gallery and the mantelpiece above the fireplace were adorned with yellow curtains. The couches were upholstered in yellow

serge. Yellow chairs with white cane seats were scattered around the room, as were "little yellow pots,” each containing "one little yellow flower.” The guard was dressed in white and ye How — newspaper writers were soon describing him as the "poached-egg man." The major elements ofthe design, including the velarium, the wall hanging that draped over the mantelpiece, and the walls, were signed with Whistler's butterfly monogram in vivid yellow.19

Not only was the 1883 installation much more elaborate than the 1874 and 1881 shows, it was also much more ideologically self-conscious. Whistler's new awareness both of his ideas about art and of the ways in which he could use exhibitions to promote those ideas is most clearly suggested by his decision to name the installation, and by his innovative use ofthe catalogue. Before 1883, Whistler had not given any of his exhibition installations a title, a It hough he had named the dining room that he designed for Frederick Leyland, calling it Harmony in Blue and Gold; The Peacock Room (1876-77). His earlier decision to name the Leyland dining room may have served as a precedent, influencing his decision to title the 1883 installation an Arrangement in White & Yellow. The installation title did not appear on the catalogue, but was announced on invitations to the private viewing, which were signed with Whistler's butterfly monogram — the wings being hand-painted in yellow for the occasion.20

In the case of both Harmony in Blue and Gold and Arrangement in White & Yellow, Whistler's decision to name his design emphasized the status of the ensemble as a complex artwork in itself, suggesting his belief that art objectsshould be valued notas representationso/something, but si m ply as harmoniously organized arrangements of color and line. If

uncomprehending reviewers would struggle to interpret Whistler’s paintings as pictures of something, he would mock their ignorance by inviting them to an exhibition that was itself an art object. Let them try to interpret h '\s Arrangement in White & Yellow asa picture ofanything. Asa design, it embodied its own objectivity. But even as the act of naming drew attention to the installation as being a nonrepresentationa l art object, it also suggested Whistler's distinctively modern recognition that no painting or art object is ever fully and finally complete in itself. The completeness, the beauty, of an a rt object lies less in the object itself than in the eye of the sympathetic beholder or, more precisely, in the momentary, subjective, congruence of beholder and object. Whistler's etchings, like the blue-and-white porcelains that filled Leyland's dining room, were simultaneously discrete art objects, finished and entire in themselves, and elements in the larger whole that was the "arrangement" in which they sounded their distinctive "notes.”

Whistler introduced one other innovation at the 1883 exhibition. All three of Whistler's earlier one-man shows had had a catalogue. But those catalogues had been mere checklists, guidestothe identification ofthe numbered paintings and prints hanging on the walls of the gallery. The 1883 catalogue was more ambitious. Titled Etchings & Drypoints. Venice. Second Series, but more pointedly subtitled Mr Whistler and His Critics, it was an oddly conservative innovation, a full-throated statement of aesthetic principles in which Whistler spoke not in his own voice, but in snippets culled from unsympathetic reviews ofthe December 1880 and lanuary 1881 exhibitions. In structure, it was a parody ofthe form that exhibition catalogues were only beginning to take, listing every object by number and providing a brief comment on each. But in this case the

cW

Figure 7

james McNeill Whistler,

Design for the Coloring of a Room , ca 1883 or 1884.

Watercoloron wove paper.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1901.168.

Mr Whistler's Gallery

Figure 8.

lames McNeill Whistler,

Harmony in BlueandGold:

The Peacock Room, 1876-77, detail showing the north wall.

Oil paintand gold-and metal-leaf on leather, wood, and canvas. Freer Gallery of Art.

Giftof Charles Lang Freer, F1904.61.

comments were all barbed — quotations from negative reviews of Whistler’s work, twisted so as to suggest the incomprehension and incompetence ofthe critic. Concerning Whistler’s etching Mura no — Glass Furnace, the reviewer for a journal with the reliable-sounding title Knowledge wrote, "Criticism is powerless here.” So it is. As the epigraph to the catalogue put it, "Out of their own mouths shall ye judge them." Like the extravagant yellow and white interior that Whistler designed for the installation, the catalogue functioned on at least two levels. On the one hand, it attracted attention with its wit and playfulness. On the other, it indirectly advanced a serious defense of Whistler’s challengingly innovative work. While Whistler was too arch to mount a structured

argument, as a whole the critical snippets suggest what by 1883 were commonplace criticisms of Whistler's recent work: he was once a careful craftsman who presentedfinished picturesof recognizable subjects; now his work has become slap-dash, sketchy, unfit for public display as completed works of art. "His pictures do not claim to be accurate" (p. 13). "He is never literary"; that is, his pictures do not tell stories about the world (p. 10). Moreover, the etchings are "little” (p. 5). Whistler did not deign to answer these aesthetically conservative complaints directly, but instead held them up to ridicule, setting them against the sketchy coherences of his small etchings and the louder harmonies of his encompassing installation.21

Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey

Whistler's next single-artist show opened on May 17, 1884, in a gallery operated by Charles William Dowdeswell (1832-1915) and hissons Walter and Charles Dowdeswell The Dowdeswells’ gallery was located at 133 New Bond Street, London, two doors from the Grosvenor Gallery and a block up from the Fine Art Society. Unlike Whistler’s shows at the Fine Art Society, which essentially stuck to one media, the 1884 Dowdeswell exhibition included watercolors and pastels as well as oil paintings. Whistler titled the exhibition "Notes" — “Harmonies" — "Nocturnes," a title he would reuse fora second one-man showatthe Dowdeswells' gallery in 1886, and foran exhibition that opened at Hermann Wunderlich's gallery in New York City in 1889. The Wunderlich version of “Notes” — "Harmonies" — "Nocturnes,” traveledtoseveralotherAmerican cities after closi ng in NewYork, and was thefirstsubstantialshowing ofWhistler's paintingsand drawings inthe United States. As announced on the invitation to the private viewing, Whistler titled the 1884 Dowdeswell installation an Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey. The 1884 exhibition followed the basic design program established by the 1883 show at the Fine Art Society, but because of the

shift from etchings to paintings and drawings, the impact of both the installation and the catalogue was even more overtly polemical. Indeed, the 1884 Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey wasthe most ideologically purposeful exhibition that Whistler ever mounted.22

Whistler's three exhibitions at the Fine Art Society had been limited to etchingsand pastels. Critical reviewers sometimes notedthe unusually small scale of these works, but scale generally remained a secondary issue because even aesthetically conservative reviewers were prepared to accept that etchingsand even pastels could be comparatively small and still be artistically important. Since Whistler's choice of media in those exhibitions did not directly challenge contemporary norms of scale, unhappy reviewers tended to direct their com plaints at what they took to be the incompleteness and sketchiness of the etchingsand pastels. Most of the negative reviews of etchings and pastels that Whistler showed at 13 the Fine Art Society emphasizetheirsupposed lack of “finish." But even in the early 1880s shows, Whistler found opportunities to raise the lurking issue of scale. The most revealing of those occasions arose on December 8,

1880, when a writerforthe London newspaper The World described the

Figure 9 .

Invitation card, engraved with Whistler's butterfly monogram, colored pink, 1884. Whistlersentthis invitation to the "private view” of his Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey to the London art dealer Charles W. Deschamps. Whistler Collection, Birnie Philip Bequest, Glasgow University Library.

. FF. '// /* FiS/s ) //'if F , n,

Q. Lu.. Ln-'C-fc*

I ../...w,,.,,/.- ,/

......

Mr. Whistler's Gallery

Mr Whistler's Gallery

first Fine Art Society exhibition as consisting of twelve etchings, "of unimportant dimensions, and of the slightest workmanship” Eager to go public with his rejection of the commonplace equation of size with importance, Whistler wrote a peremptory lettertothe paper's proprietor and editor. Strategically ignoring the issue of finish, he magisterially announced: "an etching does not de pend for its importance upon its size. 'I am not arguing with you — I am telling you Eager to immortalize both the put-down and, more importantly, the point, he reprinted the exchange in his 1890 compendium of Whistlerian wit and wisdom, The Gentle Art of Making Enemies 23

The 1884 version of "Notes” — "Harmonies" — "Nocturnes” consisted of sixty-seven oils, watercolors, and pastels. The catalogue listed works by media, leaving oil paintings unmarked but identifying watercolors and 14 pastels parenthetically. Newspaper reviews establish that some of the unmarked entries were watercolors, so an exact breakdown by media is impossible, but the exhibition was almost equally divided between oils and watercolors, with only a sprinkling of pastels.24 Most of the works in the show we re even smaller than the Venice pastels shown at the Fine Art Society in 1881. Based on the evidence of the paintings and drawings known to have been in the show, the average size was probably no more than 6x9 inches. Indeed, at least six of the oil paintings were even smaller: The Pier; a grey note (no. 1), Noteen rouge: L’Eventail (probably in the exhibition, possibly no. 64), Blue and gold — The Schooner (no. 32), Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church (no. 44), Blue and grey— Unloading (no. 56), and Blackand Emerald — Coal Mine (no. 59) are all on wood panelsthatare approximately 3V2 x53A inches in size.25

Figure 10.

lamesMcNeill Whistler, The Blue Girl, ca, 1873-76-

Chalkand pastelon paper. Freer Gallery of Art.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer, F1905.126.

Figure 11.

lames McNeill Whistler, Scherzo in blue —

The Blue Girl,

1882.

Oil on canvas, "life-size” Presumed destroyed. Dowdeswell3i.

Reproduced from Pennell, Life of Whistler (1911): 300.

\ .

n!„A"

/

<r

Figure 12.

lames McNeill Whistler,

Study of Maud WallerforScherzoin blue — The Blue Girl,

1881 or 1882.

Pen and inkon paper.

Dr. and Mrs. John E. Larkin, Jr,

15

Mr Whistler's Gallery

Many of the newspaper and magazine reviews commented on the wide variety of subjects represented in the show. As the writer for the Standard put it:

Mr. Whistler's work this year is unusually varied in its apparent themes. All sorts of objects are pressed into the service of his brush — Southend pier, the Cornish coast, a young woman dressed in a parasol and a red headgear, a grisette reading a French novel, a fog in Piccadilly, a shop in Chelsea.26

Although none of the contemporary accounts explicitly say so, the reviews suggest that works were to some extent grouped together by subject, style, medium — charming watercolors of young women in one section, vigorous oil paintings of the Cornish coast in another. Passing comments in the original reviews also suggest that the installation of the works generally 16 followed the order in the catalogue. For example, after disparagingly asking whetherthe palette knife had not “played a heavy part” mGreen and opal — The Village, no. 7, the reviewerforthe Kensington News continued, "how tantalizing it is to pass on to the next work (9), Nocturne in grey and gold — Piccadilly'.' Similarly, after completing his discussion of Petit Dejeuner; note in opal, no. 13, the reviewer for Artist and journal of Home Culture continued, “along side it hangs another water colour, striking as strong a note as 'Petit Dejeuner' strikes a sweet one," and proceeded to describe Black and red, no. 15. 27

The only large painting in the exhibition was a life-size portrait of a young g irl titled Scherzo in blue — The Blue Girl (no. 31) (see figure 11). The concept underlying the inclusion of the one large work was most clearly explained by Whistler's friend E. W. Godwin, who began his review of the

show by noting that “the collection consists of sixty-six small paintings, drawings, pastels — stars of different magnitudes, grouped around a blue moon — a life-size, full-length portrait called by the artist 'Scherzo in blue — The Blue Girl.'"28 That Godwin's metaphor expressed the artist- designer’s own conception of the installation seems to be confirmed by a letter Whistler wrote the Dowdeswells shortly before the exhibition opened, requesting they send their van to his studio in order to pick up “the Blue Girl among the little ones”29 The exhibition also included at least one and probably two medium-sized paintings: Green and opal — The Village (no. 7) and Nocturne; black and gold — No. 6, Rag Shop, Chelsea (no. 58). 30 The comparatively low and high catalogue numbers assigned to these paintingssuggestthatthey were placed onthe left a nd right wa lls, near the entrance to the room, roughly opposite each other. In his memoirs, Menpes recalled that the Scherzo in blue had "occupied a central position on one of the walls."31 The catalogue number given to Scherzo in blue, no. 31 of 67, suggests that it was placed approximately midway around the room, so it was probably given pride of place as the focal point of the wall facing the entrance to the gallery.

Except for Rag Shop, which was painted about 1878, and one Venetian pastel (no. 50), it seems that every work in the show was completed after Whistler's return from Venice. Indeed, most of the works in the exhibition, probably more than fifty, were completed after Arrangement in White & Yellow closed, at the end of March 1883. Whistler had little choice but to include so many new works in the 1884 exhibition. Fie had completed a great deal of work during his fourteen months in Venice, but after three exhibitions at the Fine Art Society he had shown most of that work,

including everyone of the major Venice etchings, pastels, and oils except thetwo medium-sized nocturnes in oil. Moreover, he had spent much of 1881-82 printing the etchings and working on a few large portraits, so thatwhilehehada few recent large paintings to send to the Grosvenor Gallery and other group venues, he did not have enough work for another one-man exhibition.32

Whistler probably began working toward a new single-artist show shortly after Arrangement in White & Yellow closed. He must have completed a significant body of new work by late October 1883, when he contacted the Fine Art Society to suggest a spring show. The Fine Art Society rebuffed Whistler's overture, but Whistler reached an understanding with the Dowdeswells by January 1884, when he began to mention an upcoming exhibition in his letters.33

Whistler's surviving correspondence provides some evidence as to the order in which he completed works for the show. The largest group of paintings or drawings in the exhibition was a series of seascapes done in the fishing village of St. Ives, on the Cornwall coast. St. Ives was readily accessible from London by train, and was in the early stages of becoming an important tourist destination. Whistler departed from London in late December 1883, arriving in St. Ives by December 27. Perhaps trying to recapture something of the camaraderie of the heady days in Venice, he invited his students Mortimer Menpes (1860-1938) and Walter Sickert (1860-1942) to accompany him. Whistler had taken several working trips to villages on the English coast after his return from Venice, all of which seem to have been quite brief. His correspondence makes it clear that he originally intended to stay in St. Ives for no more than a week or two, but

once there he repeatedly put off his return to London, and ended up staying until the end of january. Whistler's St ives paintings generally ignore any signs of the nascent tourist industry, instead focusing on the narrow streets or shops in the village, fishermen tending to their boats or nets, boats in the harbor or silhouetted against the sea, and — especially — the sea itself.34

During the five or so weeks he spent in St. Ives, Whistler completed a major body of work, including more than twenty oil paintings and at least seven watercolors. Mostofthe paintingsand watercolorsare unusually small even for Whistler, and letters he wrote from St. Ives show both his excitement with his new work and a preoccupation with scale. The letters focus on the oils and repeatedly emphasize their small size, describing them as "little beauties,” "little things,” and "little games” The description of the oil paintings as "little games” seems especially 17 revealing because it suggests that Whistler was already imagining the ruckus he expected them to stir up when they were displayed at the Dowdeswells' gallery. In a letter dated |anuary 15, 1884, to an important patron, for example, he bragged that he had "another game 'Amazing' I coming off shortly that will be as successful as the Pastels I — and bring lots of money as that did — this time, oil paintings — little beauties — you will be delighted to know.” And in a more detailed letter to the American sculptor Waldo Story (1854-1915), he explained that he had been doing "delightful things — and have a wonderful game to play soon,” and concluded, "Now when my exhibition comes off I [will] have plenty of amazing little beauties — new game I — that will bring golden ducats — like the pastels" [emphasis in the original]. At least ten of the oil paintingsand

Mr Whistler’s Gallery

Mr. Whistler's Gallery

one of the watercolors exhibited at the Dowdeswells' were done in St. Ives, including at least three of the tiny oils (3V2X5V4 inches) and the smallest watercolorthat is definitely known to have been in the show. 35

In his letters from St. IvesWhistlerdoes notdiscuss new watercolors, so it see ms likely that his decision to include watercolors in his spring 1884 show was made after his return to London. The turn to watercolors was another new departure for Whistler, who rarely used the medium before 1881, and had never previously exhibited a substantial group of them. Whistler's adoption of watercolors, like his use of pastels while in Venice, reflects his inveterate curiosity as an artist, but the choice also expresses the polemical intentions informing all his actions in the months leading uptotheopeningofthe 1884 exhibition. Unlike pastels, which British critics and collectors gene rally associated with work by amateurs, women, 18 or distressingly "advanced” French artists, the use of watercolor had a long history in England, and was closely identified with the most important English school of landscape art, the Pre-Raphaelites, and Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851). Like his small oils, the watercolors Whistler showed at the Dowdeswells' gallery in 1884 were unusuallysmalland sketchy, provocations to conventional expectations about the size and degree of finish appropriate for an exhibition watercolor.36

Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey included several watercolor seascapes (at least one of which had been done in St. Ives, no. 55), three watercolors of London scenes, and four important Amsterdam nocturnes in watercolor. But the largest group of watercolors in the show, and the group that attracted the most critical attention, was a series of drawings ofyoung female models. The watercolors of studio models are closely

connected to several small oils that also show female models in the studio, including another one of the 3V2 x 53A inch paintings, Note en rouge: L'Eventail (probably in the exhibition, possibly no. 64). Since Whistler's earliest securely datable oils of this size were all painted in St Ives, it seems likely to assume that Note en rouge: L'Eventail and all or almost all of the related oils and watercolors were painted after his return to London. This conclusion is a Iso suggested by the fact that the model in Note en rouge: L'Eventail seems to be M illy Finch, who appears in several of the studio watercolors and is mentioned in two of Whistler's May 1884 letters. As Margaret MacDonald was the first to point out, Whistler seems to have begun to draw Miss Finch at a time when his long-time model and mistress, Maud Franklin, was ill, suggesting that a 11 or most of the Finch subjects date from the same period as a series of watercolors showing Maud in bed or convalescent. In addition to Note en rouge: L'Eventail, works that fit into this grouping include Note in Pink and Purple: The Studio (probably no. 10), Convalescent { probably no. 13), Pinknote — The Novelette (no. 16), Note in red— The Siesta (no. 17), Harmony in violet and amber (no. 19), Note in pink and purple (probably no. 27), and A Note in Green (probably no. 43). 37

As winter turned to spring, Whistler moved outside to paint or draw views of his Chelsea neighborhood, in early May, he wrote Menpes, who was helping to frame works for the approaching show, to suggest that if he could get to Chelsea early in the morning, he should "pass by the [Thames] Embankment, if quite early, I shall be atthe 'shop' game — & then on to the studio" [emphasis in the original] . At a bout the same time he wrote Charles William Dowdeswellwith even greater urgency, warning Dowdeswellnotto look for him in the studio, if he came by the next day, as

Mmi

"I shall be on the Embankment painting away for dear life "These letters suggest that several of the eight Chelsea subjects in the exhibition, including Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church (no. 44, another of the tiny oils), date from the spring of 1884. 38

Whistler’s Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey opened at the Dowdeswells' gallery on Saturday, May 17, 1884. The exhibition was installed in what a writer for the newspaper Queen described as "the somewhat circumscribed space" at the back of the gallery. The walls of the gallery were covered with a textured cloth, the color of which was variously described as "pink,” "salmon,” and "a delicate rose-tint” The baseboard below the cloth was painted a light gray; the wood molding above it was painted a blacker gray. 39 The color harmonies were probably similar to those found in several contemporary paintings, including the Freer's Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel (about 19 1885) and Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux (1881-82). The upper part of the wall and the ceiling was probably painted a grayish white. Instead of using a velarium to control the natural lighting, the skylights were fitted with blinds. Early reviews report that the floor was covered with a "greenish yellow” straw matting, but it seems that this was quickly replaced with a gray carpet. The room was decorated with "magnificent azaleas in vases.” Chairs were "arrangements in white and grey.” The fireplace was decorated with a pale gray or "dove colour” drape, "edged with flesh-coloured cord." The corner ofthis drape was decorated with Whistler's monogram, "a |a pa nese butterfly of flesh-coloured velvet and a darker shade of grey ... applique in the new style of needlework.” In front of the fire place stood "a large crater of flesh-coloured earthenware containing a large plant of marguerite daisies”40 The attendant was

Figure 13-

lames McNeill Whistler, Harmony in Pink and Grey: Portrait of Lady Meux,

1881-82.

Frick Collection,

Copyright of the Frick Collection , NewYork.

Mr. Whistler's Gallery

Mr, Whistler’s Gallery

Exhibition of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers.

Photograph reproduced from “International Art at Knightsbridge Art journal (August 1898), .249-

Figure 15.

South wall, Whistler Memorial Exhibition (1904)

Copley Society, Boston. Photograph, courtesy ofthe Freer Gallery of Art Archives.

dressed "in a grey coat with flesh-coloured collar and cuffs, grey trousers, grey stockings, and fashionably cut patent leather pumps” Whistler completedthe design bysigning the installation with a painted butterfly high upon one of the walls.41

Theopeningon Mayi7, 1884, known asthe "private view," waslimited to invited guests and designed to attract the attention of reporters eager to document the doings of the rich and famous. The private view was much like modern gallery openings, except that it was held during the afternoon so that gaslight would not throw off the subtleties of Whistler's harmonies. 42 Guests included many painters, actors, actresses, writers, critics, and the kind of wealthy Londoners that the reviewer for Queen described simply as "fashionable people." The Duke of Somerset was there — "with a mostaesthetic neckerchief," and Lord ) ustice Fry, as were Vice-Chancellor Bacon, the actress Mrs. Bernard Beere, the journalist Willie Wilde, and Whistler’s good friend Oscar Wilde, accompanied by his fiance Miss Constance Lloyd (the couple married twelve days later).43 Queen, which was mainly interested in the clothes, noted that : " i n the ladies' dress, the fashionable coquelicot was predominant, the costumes of this colour, with short shoulder capes trimmed with dark feather trimming, were generally worn. The head gear, to correspond, was either in the form of a large hat of the same colour or a small bonnet, very much cut up to show a large coil of hair, now much the mode. Grey dresses with silver trimmings, flesh-coloured lace or darker shade of feather trimming, were a Iso to be seen — the latter trimming, however, is rather posse and common. Green is another of the fashionable colours represented. This colour adapts itself well to hats and bon nets trimmed with the beautiful iridescent lophophore feathers."44

The factthat so many fashionable women wore coquelicot, poppy red, was probably intentional. Whistler often asked his lady friends to dress in colors that would harmonize with his designs, and one of the most vibrant "notes" that echoed through the installation was that rung by the bright poppy reds which dominate several of the figure paintings, including Note in red — The Siesta (no. 17), Red and pink — La Petite Mephisto (no. 51), and Note en rouge: L'Eventail (possibly no. 64). Men generally wore tight trousers, high collars, George IV hats, and carried canes. Whistler worked the floor. The Topical Times described him as gliding "through the crowd like a miniature Mephistopheles," whispering "artistic diabolisms in the prettiest ears in London.”45

There are no known drawings or photographs of the 1884 installation, although something of its design vocabulary is suggested by a photograph of the 1904 Whistler memorial exhibition at the Copley Society in Boston 21 As a newspaper review of this exhibition accurately noted, the Copley Society show was organized by longtime friends of Whistler's who designed it "in accordance with a plan of deco ration which it is believed Mr. Whistler would have approved of.” Light was diffused, the walls decorated "with a gray color scheme of generally Japanese effect,” the paintings hung symmetrically along the line, in a room decorated with benches and potted plants.46 An even more authoritative glimpse of a Whistler installation is provided bya photograph ofthe May 1898 exhibition ofthe International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers. Whistler had been elected president ofthe society in February 1898, and supervised the installation of the new association's first exhibition. It is therefore not surprising that the only surviving photograph ofthe installation focuses on Whistler's own work. The photograph appears as part of a long review in the Art journal,

Mr Whistler's Gallery

Mr Whistler'sGallery

which makes it clear that fifteen years after the Fine Art Society and Dowdeswells’ gallery exhibitions, many of Whistler's design innovations were still unusual enough to merit comment. The reviewer thus explained that the paintings were hung in, " large square rooms from whence the light of glaring day is subdued by muslin blinds and white velaria, so that the tone of light is already refined before it reaches the pictures, and thus every work is madeto look its very best. Each picture is hung separately and only occasionally dotwoframestouch, nothing is hung too high nor too near a fighting neighbor, a lithe modern theories of the exhibition of pictures a re carried out, andinourjudgmentthe result is both restful and stimulating: restful because the spectator is not troubled with more than one work to examine at a time, and stimulating because the variety of method ofwork isaccentuated withoutthe pictures, sotosay, 'swearing' 22 atone another."47

At the Dowdeswells’ gallery in 1884, Whistler's argument against the equation ofsize with importance was visually suggested bythesmall scale of the drawings and most of the oil paintings, and verbally emphasized by the overtly polemical aphorisms with which he prefaced the catalogue (see figure 1). The visual argument made by the size of the paintings and drawings was underscored by Whistler's decision to use the oak frame developed forthe 1881 exh i bition ofhisVenice pastelsto house every work in Arrangementin Flesh Colour & Grey. Whistler used the frames much as he had in 1881, relying on the standardization of their design to establish a consistent visual element within his installation, while varying the color of the gilding to create visual interest and to complement the color harmonies of particular paintings and drawings (see figure 16). 48 But Whistler's use of a standardized frame picked up a new polemical

significance because he used the same width molding to house works in different media, implicitly challenging the conventional assumption that oil paintings were more important than watercolors or pastels. To draw attention to this implied meaning, Whistler widened hisframes. Atthe Fine Art Society in 1881, Whistler had placed the Venice pastels in frames with a 4V2 inch-wide molding. Atthe Dowdeswells' gallery in 1884, he put the tiny 3V2X5V4 inch oil paintings in frames with a molding width of43/s inches, but seems to have housed almost all the other paintings and watercolors in unusually wide frames with a molding width of 5%; inches (see figures 16 and 17). 49 Though subtle, the change was noticed. In his memoirs, Menpes recalledthatvisitors to Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey found the frames "fantastic,” and the reviewer for the Globe complained that the frames were "massive."50 By widening the molding and using identical frames to house both oil paintings and works on paper, Whistler visually suggested that works of art should be valued neither by media nor size, but solely by the completeness with which they organize color and line into a harmonious and therefore beautiful whole.51

Aesthetic beliefs implied by the style of Whistler's art and the design of his installation were more explicitly developed in the "L’Envoie" with which he prefaced the 1884 catalogue. Unlike the 1883 catalogue, which had implied but did not develop an aesthetic argument, the "L'Envoie" directly expressed deeply held beliefs a bout finish, scale, and beauty that Whistler had first publicly discussed in his testimony at the Ruskm libel trial in 1878, and would further develop in the "Ten O'clock" lecture he wrote in early 1885.

As many of the original reviewers rushed to point out, the title "L’Envoie” seems to be a mistake. In the words of the reviewer for the Globe:

"Determined to be original, Mr. Whistler has furnished the catalogue with a few sentences which he calls L'Envoie, a word that does not exist; and further to show his independence he has placed them at the beginning. L'Envoi in ballad poetry, the only form of literature with which the word is rightly associated, is always an addendum”52 But if Whist lerhadmadea mistake with his French, it was a mistake he refused to correct in the catalogue to the 1889 "Notes” — "Harmonies” — "Nocturnes" in New York, and it is more attractive to suppose that he was risking a Mallarmean play on words. For in this prefatory postscript Whistler is struggling, not altogether successfully perhaps, to establish the terms by which his work should be appreciated by setting the terms in which the work of more representational and su bject-orie nted artists should be criticized. Thus the "L’Envoie" does indeed serve as an addendum, announcing the anticipated death of representationaland narrative-driven visualartwhile at the same time heralding the birth of a new visual art that would be solely concerned with the intrinsic beauty of harmoniously arranged colors and forms.

Whistler’s "L'Envoie" is made up of seven aphorisms. Numbers 1, 2, 5, and 6, are essentially retrospective, rehearsing an already familiar progressive critique of academic theories of finish. "To say of a picture, as is often said in its praise, that it shows great and earnest labour, is to say that it is incomplete and unfit for view.” Uncomprehending and unsympathetic reviewers took this as a defense of the slapdash, and quoted it as an unconvincing justification for Whistler's sketchy style of painting. But Whistler's point had less to do with style than with the definition of what a painting should be. If one accepts his aesthetic assumption that a work of visua L a rt shou Id be valued notforitsaccuracyasa representation orfor

what it reveals about the world, but simply for the effectiveness with which it com bines color and line into a harmonious whole, then of course the amount of work that goes into its creation is irrelevant to the evaluation of its quality — as is its size. Indeed, if one's goal is the moment of disinterested aesthetic appreciation, then any concern with the life of the artist, or the meaning of the work of art, or its accuracy, or its size, is irrelevant. The other three aphorisms (numbers 3, 4, and 7), all attempt to clarify the poi nt that what seems to be a critique of academic theories of proper finish is in fact indistinguishable from an avant-garde defense of 'Art for Art's Sake': "Industry in Art is a necessity, — not a virtue, — and any evidenceofthesame,intheproduction,isablemish,nota quality; — a proof, not of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient work, forwork alone will efface the footsteps of work." It is not that Whistler was opposed to artistic labor, but rather that he believed that the artist's sole goal 23 should be to create beauty, and that in order to facilitate the viewer's experience of beauty the artist should seek to erase all distractions that might encourage viewers to think of the artist, or ofthemselves as centers of perception, oroftheartobjectasan object of perception, sothatthey could momentarily lose themselves in an experience of beauty.

The aphorism which makes this point most successfully is the seventh:

"The masterpiece should appear as the flower to the painter, — perfect in its bud as in its bloom, — with no reason to explain its presence, — no mission to fulfil, — a joy to the artist, — a delusion to the philanthropist, a puzzle to the botanist, an accident of sentiment and alliteration to the literary man." As an effort at self-explanation, Whistler was probably trying too hard to be clear. His meaning might have been less confusing if he had stopped with the si mi lea bout the bud and the flower. Whistler was

Mr Whistler’s Gallery

Mr Whistler's Gallery

not suggesting that the re was only one "right” way to perceive a rosebud. Like any other object of experience, a rosebud can be objectified in many different ways. Rather, Whistler wanted to narrow the definition of art by insistingthatvisual artists should neverbe concerned with meaning, but solely with beauty. And ifthe value of art lies solely in the disinterested experience of beauty, then it makes no sense to suggest that a rosebud is any less perfect or beautiful than the flower it may become. A flower in bud is different than one in bloom, butthetwoare equally beautiful — and equally "finished” Or as Whistler's fourth aphorism put it, "The work of the master reeks not of the sweat of the brow, — suggests no effort, — and is finished from its beginning.” Many of the newspaper reviewers mocked thisaphorism asan unconvincing self-justification by an artistwhowas too lazy to bring his works to the expected degree of completeness. But 24 Whistlerwas notdefending hisown practice, he wastryingtoevokethe idealmomentofaestheticappreciationwhena person isso moved bythe internal harmonies of a man-made or a natural object that they momentarily forget themselves in the intensity of their experience of beauty. Like any good aesthete, Whistler believed that in such hoped-for moments of aesthetic pleasure all thoughts of why or wherefore, all questions a bout the maker of the object of beauty or of its purpose, would be (forthe moment) forgotten.

Whistler did not doubt that beauty is intrinsic to particular objects. But neither did he doubt that beauty is a creation of the beholder. More precisely, Whistler believed that the completeness of a beautiful painting or drawing inhered in the object, and in the perceiver, and in the enlivening relationship between the two. Which brings us back to that odd

terminal'e’ on "L’Envoie.” If beauty can be defined both as a characteristic of certain kinds of man-made or natural objects and as a certain kind of experience of those objects, then objects that we think of as beautiful a re simultaneously complete in themselves and brought to completion by thei r a ppreciators. They a re thus always in transit, complete in the bud but always already becoming something else. Or as the French say, "en voie de," in process of

L’Envoi

Whistler aspired to create artworks that resisted interpretation so as to provoke merely aesthetic appreciation. As his use of musical terms in his titles was meant to suggest, he did not want his paintings to be read as representations of something else. Rather, he wanted them to be experienced as non referential arrangements of color and line. This way of appreciating artworks is not unusual inthe early twenty-first century, but wasstill rare in late nineteenth-century London and Paris. Likeallaesthetic pioneers, Whistler hadto help uncomprehending reviewersand art lovers learn the mental skills they needed to acquire in orderto appreciate his work. The installations that Whistler created for his one-man exhibitions were unusually effective teaching tools because it was in them that he most fully freed himself from the demands of representation. Asa painter, Whistler never gave up his need for a subject. But as a designer he did. Unlike his paintings, drawings, and prints — unlike even the Peacock Room — Whistler's exhibition installations slipped the chains of representation and became mute non-referential objects of aesthetic appreciation.

Figure 16.

Frame for Nocturne in grey and gold— Piccadilly,

59/ie in. wide molding, witholdgilding.

Manufactured forthe Dowdeswells' gallery in 1884.

National Gallery of Ireland,

Dublin.

Dowdeswell9

Figure 17.

Reverse of fra me for Grey and silver — Pier, Southend,

59/is i n . wide molding. Manufactured forthe Dowdeswells' gallery in 1884.

Freer Gallery of Art.

Gift of Cha rles Lang Freer, F1902.169 Dowdeswell62

Mr. Whistler’s Gallery

Mr. Whistler's Gallery

The ironies here work in many different ways. In Whistler’s mature paintings, drawings, and prints, he eschewed conventionalfinish in order to high light the artifice of the art object. In his paintings, he laid the paint on thinly so that the viewer could not help but notice the weave of the canvas or the grain of the board support. In his drawings, he was parsimonious with his watercolorsor paste Is so that the viewer had to see the paper beneath. In his etchings and lithographs, he left large areas of his plate or stone untouched. In all these media, Whistler let the support show because he wanted the viewer to remember that his works were not windows onto another world, but only arrangements of color and line on a flat support.

But as Whistler noted in a letter to Walter Dowdeswe 11 written shortly before the opening of the 1886 installment of "Notes" — "Harmonies" — 26 "Nocturnes," as a designer he worked very differently. Eager to spur Dowdeswellon to greater care and, no doubt, expense, Whistler reminded him that their exhibition "will be th.e Artistic event of the season, if we dont [sic] break our necks and spoil things by undue haste — no coming uponthe Public withoutthe usual complete perfection offinish which is the great characteristic of the Whistler shows" (emphases in original).53 Whistler was, of course, making a joke about "finish." But from the vantage point of the early twenty-first century we can clearly see something that he probably could not -that both the sketchiness of his work and the meticulousness of his designs promoted an awareness of beauty as a nonreferential arrangement of color and line. Indeed, the decorations may have done as much or more to help prepare the way for twentieth-century non representational art as the notes, harmonies, and nocturnesdid.

I want to point out one more irony. Unlike Whistler’s seemingly ephemeral prints, pastels, watercoiors, and small oils, which are portable and therefore surprisingly durable, the installations, like all interior decorations, were truly ephemeral. But instead of being a sign of their unimportance, this is part of what makes them seem so contemporary and powerful. E. W. Godwin caught something of this in his review of the Arrangement in Flesh Colour & Grey. Writing several weeks after Whistler's show had come down but before the Dowdeswells painted over the decoration, Godwin mourned the impending passing of that which still remained: "The restlessness of modern fashion, for ever changing, that cannot allow the best of things to last beyond a season, will, perchance, sweep away this decoration, and it will be counted with the other delightful harmonies Mr. Whistler has produced in Piccadilly and Bond-street, and, indeed, wherever his works have been exhibited, That these exquisitely lovely arrange me nts of colour should live as memories only, gives to the very nomenclature our painter had adopted a touch of pathos. The room in Piccadilly and the rooms at the Fine Arts Society have gone, as Whistlerian compositions, quite as effectually as the vibrations of the last quartette. . . ,"54

More fully than any of Whistler's paintings, drawings, or prints, the seemingly ephemeral designs attain the longed-for status of absolute music. Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter.

Notes” — “Harmonies” — “Nocturnes

|4s§

Catalogue

1 Blue and silver — The Islands, Venice

Blue and silver —

The Islands, Venice

1880

Chalkand pastelon brown paper, 39/ibx llViein.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift ofCharles Lang Freer

F1905.215

Dowdesweii50

Cliffs and Breakers

Probably December 1883 or january 1884 Oilon wood panel,

47/s x 8V2 in.

Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Birnie Philip Bequest Possibly Dowdeswell 37,

"The Green Headland"

Wortley; note in green

ca. 1883

Oilon wood panel,

5V4 x 9V4 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift ofCharles Lang Freer

F1902.155 Dowdeswell 34

3 Wortley; note in green

Catalogue

4 The Angry Sea

The Angry Sea

December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel,

47A x 8V2 in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1904.76

Dowdeswell2

The Sea and Sand

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel,

51/4x91/tin.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.151

Probably Dowdeswell 36,

"Sea and Storm; grey and green"

5 The Sea and Sand

Catalogue

Black and Emerald —

Coal Mine

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oilon wood panel,

3Y2 x 57/s in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.153

Dowdeswellgg

The Pier; a grey note

December 1883 or |anuary 1884 Oilon wood panel,

3V2 x 53/» in .

Fine Arts MuseumsofSan Francisco, Museum purchase, Alletta Morris McBean Bequest Fund and gifts in her honor, 1988.6 Dowdeswelli

Blue and gold — The Schooner

December 1883 or January 1884 Oilon wood panel,

3V2x57/8in.

Private Collection Dowdeswell32

6 Black and Emerald — Coal Mine

7 The Pier; a grey note

8 Blue and gold — The Schooner

Catalogue

Green and Silver:

The Devonshire Cottages

1883 or 1884 Oilon canvas, l25/8x 243/4in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. GiftofCharles Lang Freer F1906.227

Possibly Dowdeswell7,

"Green and opal— The Village"

35

Catalogue

34

Green and Silver:

The Devonshire Cottages

1883 or 1884 Oil on canvas,

I2s/ax243/«in.

FreerGalleryof Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1906.227

Possibly Dowdeswell7,

"Green and opal— The Village"

35

10 Low Tide

Probably December 1883 or

|anuaryi884

Oilon wood panel,

53/s x g 1/4 i n .

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.156

Probably Dowdeswell45, "Sands; blue note"

Grey and silver Mist- Life Boat

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oilon wood panel,

47/sx 8V2 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1914.1

Dowdeswell54

Catalogue

12 Violet and silver — The Great Sea

Violet and silver —

The Great Sea

ca. 1884

Oilon wood panel, SVsxgViin.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.148

Dowdeswell33

Note in blue and opal — The Sun Cloud

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oilon wood panel,

47/sx 8V2 in .

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1904.314

Dowdeswell52

13 Note in blue and opal — The Sun Cloud

Catalogue

14 Blue and grey — Unloading 40

15 Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church

Blue and g rey — U nloading

Probably December 1883 or (anuary 1884

Oil on wood panel, 37* x 57/s i n .

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift ofCharles Lang Freer

F1902.150

Dowdeswell56

Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church

Probably 1884 Oilon wood panel,

372x53/4in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.152

Dowdeswell44

Red and blue — Lindsey Houses

ca. 1882-84 Oilon wood panel,

574X974 in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift ofCharles Lang Freer

F1902.157

DowdeswelU

16 Red and blue — Lindsey Houses

Catalogue

42

i

17 Grey Mist at Sea

Grey Mist at Sea

1883 or 1884

Watercoior on white wove paper, 59/i6 x g7/i6 1 n .

Birmingham Museumsand Art Gallery Dowdeswell22

Sunrise; gold and grey

Probably December 1883 or lanuary 1884

Watercoior on white wove paper, 67/8x415/i6in.

Courtesy of the National Gallery of Ireland

Probably Dowdeswell55,

"Sunrise; gold and grey;" or, possibly, Dowdeswell47, "Twilight; gold and grey”

18 Sunrise; gold and grey

Catalogue

44

19 Grey and silver — Purfleet

Grey and silver — Purfleet

1883 or 1884

Watercoloron beige paper, laid down oncard,65/i6x83Ain.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.117 Dowdeswell 5

Erith — Evening

1883 or 1884

Watercoloron beige paper, laid down on card,

5n/i6x97/isin.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.168 Dowdeswell 14

Page 46

Nocturne; black and red— Back Canal, Holland

1883 or 1884

Watercoloron cream wove paper, 85/8 x liVs in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Gift ofCharlesLang Freer

F1902.159 Dowdeswell 53

Page 47

Amsterdam in Winter

December 1882 Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card,

8xio7/8in.

Freer Ga llery of Art, Washington, D.C. G ift of Charles Lang Freer F1904.81

Probably Dowdeswell49,

"Nocturne, black and gold — Winter; Amsterdam"

20 Erith — Evening

Catalogue

21 Nocturne; black and red — Back Canal, Holland

22 Amsterdam in Winter

Catalogue

23 Nocturne; grey and gold — Canal; Holland

Nocturne; grey and gold — Canal; Holland

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper, ll7/iex 9 Vie in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.160

Dowdeswell3

Grand Canal, Amsterdam; nocturne

1883 or 1884

Wate rco lor on crea m wove pa pe r, 87/sx n3/i6 in .

Freer Ga llery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.16.1

Dowdeswelll8

24 Grand Canal, Amsterdam; nocturne

Catalogue

50

Opal Beach

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card,

615/i6xg15/i6in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.170

Dowdeswell67

i

*

Grey and silver — Pier, Southend

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card, 6X/4X gn/i6in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.169

Dowdeswell62

25 Opal Beach

26 Grey and silver — Pier, Southend

Catalogue

52

Nocturne in grey and gold — Piccadilly

1881-83

Watercolor on white wove paper, 83/4x liV^in.

Courtesy ofthe National Gallery

of Ireland

Dowdesweilg

53

Catalogue

Nocturne in grey and gold — Piccadilly

1881-83

Watercolor on white wove pa per, 83/4xii1/Jin.

Courtesy of the National Gallery

of Ireland

Dowdeswell9

Catalogue

Nocturne; silver and opal — Chelsea

ca. 1880-84

Oil on wood panel, 8 x loVsin.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.146

Dowdeswell25

28 Nocturne; silver and opal — Chelsea

Nocturne; silver and opal — | Chelsea

I ca. 1880-84

Oil on wood panel, 8 x ioVs in.

Freer Gallery of Art.

Washington, D.C.

Gift ofCharles Lang Freer F1902.146

Dowdeswell25

54

28 Nocturne; silver and opal — Chelsea

Catalogue

56

A Chelsea Street

Probably 1883 or 1884 Watercolor on white paper,

415/i6x 89/i6 i n .

Yale Center For British Art,

Paul Mellon Collection Probably Dowdeswell8,

"The Little Grocery, Chelsea; grey and red"

Village Shops, Chelsea

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on off-white paper, laid down on card, 5 x 872 in.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon Possibly D.owdeswell 63,

"Old Shop, Chelsea; pinkandgrey"

Street in Old Chelsea

Early 1880s Oilon wood panel,

StAx.gVsin.

MuseumofFineArts, Boston Denman Waldo Ross Collection Probably Dowdeswell 11,

"Chelsea; yellow and grey"

30 Village Shops, Chelsea

Catalogue

32 Chelsea Shops

Chelsea Shops

Early 1880s Oilon wood panel,

5%x gV-iin.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

GiftofCharles Lang Freer F1902.149

Probably Dowdeswell23, "Pink note — Chelsea;” or Dowdeswell 42, "Harmony inyellowand brown — Sunday”

An orange note —

Sweet Shop

December 1883 or January 1884 Oilon wood panel,

4V4 x 8V2 in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

GiftofCharles Lang Freer F1904.315 Dowdeswell 38

A Grey Note: Village Street

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oilon wood panel,

47/8x 8V2 in .

Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University ofGlasgow, Birnie Philip Gift Possibly Dowdeswell 41,

"Little Shop; grey note”

59

34 A Grey Note: Village Street

Catalogue

Nocturne; black and gold No. 6, Rag Shop, Chelsea

ca. 1878 Oilon canvas,

I41/4x20in.

Courtesyofthe Fogg ArtMuseum, Harvard University Art Museums, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop Dowdeswell58

14% x 20 in.

Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop Dowdeswell 58

Catalogue

Red and pink —

La Petite Mephisto

Probably 1884 Oil on wood panel,

10 x 8 in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.c.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

FI902.147

Dowdeswellsi

Note en rouge: L’Eventail

Probably 1884 Oil on wood,

3V2 x 53/ 4 i n .

Freer Gallery of Art Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Fl'913.91

Possibly Dowdeswell 64,

"Caprice in red"

37 Note en rouge: L’Eventail

Catalogue

38 Note in Pink and Purple: The Studio

Note in Pink and Purple: The Studio

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper, il15/i6x 87/sin.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.163

Probably Dowdeswellloor6, both titled "Violet and red"

Note in Opal: Breakfast

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card,

97/8x 67/sin.

Freer Ga llery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.162

Probably Dowdeswell 35, "Violet and amber— Tea”

39 Note in Opal: Breakfast

Catalogue

40 The Yellow Room

The Yellow Room

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on off-white paper, 913/i6x7in.

Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida. Extendedanonymousloan. TR4386.1.

Possibly Dowdeswell 21,

"Harmony in violet and yellow”

Convalescent

1883 or 1884

Watercoloron off-white paper,

95/8 x 63Ain.

Private Collection Probably Dowdeswell 13,

"Petit Dejeuner; note in opal”

Catalogue

42 Black and red

Black and red

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on white laid paper, gx 6V4in.

National Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.,

Gift of Mr. and Mrs, Paul Mellon Dowdeswell 15

Harmony in violet and amber

1883 or 1884

Watercoloron cream paper, laid down on card,

913/i6X 67/ie i n .

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift ofCharles Lang Freer FI902.164 Dowdeswell 19

43 Harmony in violet and amber

Catalogue

44 Pink note — The Novelette

Pink note — The Novelette

1883 or 1884

Watercoloron white wove paper, 915/i6 x 6V 16 in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.158

Dowdeswelll6

Pink note — Shelling Peas

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper, 9V2 x 55/8 in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer

F1902.166

Dowdeswell20

45 Pink note — Shelling Peas

Catalogue

46 Note in red — The Siesta

Note in red — The Siesta

Probably 1883 or 1884 Oilonwood panel,

8V2X 12 in.

Terra Museum of American Art,

Chicago

Dowdeswelll7

Catalogue

Note in red — The Siesta

Probably 1883 or 1884 Oilonwood panel,

872x12 in.

Terra Museum of American Art,

Chicago

Dowdeswell 17

Catalogue

47 Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple

Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple

Probably 1884 Oilon wood, 12 x g in.

Cincinnati ArtMuseum Probably Dowdeswell 6 or 10, both titled "Violet and red" Cincinnati Art Museum,

John ). Emery Fund

Note in pink and purple

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on white laid paper, 93/4 x 6V4 in Cincinnati ArtMuseum Probably Dowdeswell 27

Catalogue

76

49 Red and black

Red and black

1883 or 1884

Watercoloron brown paper,

93/i6 x 5Vs in.

Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop Dowdesweil6l

Yellow and grey

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper, 913/i6x67/8in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift ofCharles Lang Freer

F1902.165

Dowdesweil43

50 Yellow and grey

Catalogue

51 Arrangement in black— Reading

Arrangement in black — Reading

Early 1880s Oilon wood panel,

9V4 x 7V2 i n .

jimandGinaLiautaud

Dowdeswell26

Bravura in brown

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper, 89/i6x615/i6in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.167

Possibly Dowdeswell 66,

“Bravura in brown"

52 Bravura in brown

Catalogue

Moreby Hall

1883 or 1884

Pen, brown ink, and watercoloron cream paper,

711/i6x n3/i6in.

Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, D.C.

GiftofCharles Lang Freer

F1904.80

Dowdeswell28

80

53 Moreby Hall

Catalogue

Moreby Hall

S 1883 or 1884

I Pen. brown ink, and watercolor on cream paper.

7n/i6XiiJ/i6in Freer Gallery of Art,

Washington, DC.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F 1904 80

Dowdeswell28

80

53 Moreby Hall

Identifying

Paintings and Drawings Exhibited at the Dowdeswell and Dowdeswelis Gallery in 1884

Paintings and drawings change over time. Oil paints flake and crackle. Varnishes darken. The pigments in watercol- ors fade from exposure to light. Watercolors and pastels are generally drawn on paper— and paper can fade, or darken, with exposure to light. But except in extreme instances, the basic appearance of an oil painting or drawing can remain recognizable for centuries.

The titles of works of art are much more evanescent. An artist completes a work, sends it to exhibition, and gives it a title. Someartistsdo notchangetheoriginaltitles. Many do. Whistler regularly changed his titles, and many of his major paintings have several different authoritative ones. Even artworks that a re not renamed by their maker are often separated from their original titles. An artist finishes a work, titles it, and sells it. Maybe the original title is written on the back of the frame. This is especially common when a work is lent to an exhibition. Or maybe someone puts the original title on a tablet on the front of the frame. But artworks are often reframed, and when paintings and drawings are put into new frames, inscriptions on the backs offramesand tablets on theirfronts are often lost. Inscriptions made directly onto the backs of paintingsand drawings often survive longer, but even those get erased or obscured . Aging paintingsand drawings are often attached to new canvas or board supports. This helps preserve the work of art, but conceals any information on the back of the original support. The first owners of artworks usually remember artist-given titles, but their descendents often forget them. And even the clearest of family memories are lost when artworksaresold. Paintingsand drawings by well-known artists rarely get destroyed, buttheyare often separated from their original titles.

Sixty-four of the sixty-seven works that Whistler showed at the Dowdeswelis’ gallery in 1884 were small. Small works are even more vulnerable to title loss than big ones. Small paintingsand drawings a re generally completed more quickly than large ones, so artists rarely leave detailed descriptions ofthem intheirjournals or letters. Small works also tend to be less expensive, so galleries and collectors are less l i ke ly to pay fo r ta b lets wh e n t h ey a re f ra m ed . Li ke nineteenth-century buyers of art, contemporary reviewers generally equated size with importance, so period reviews rarely offer detailed descriptions of small works. Whistler's aesthetic principles made his titles especially vulnerable. Whistler thought of his works as abstract studies in color

and form, so he generally avoided descriptive titles, preferring to emphasize the formal, abstract qualities of his paintings and drawings .Black and red (no. 15), not 'Madge Seated'. But despite Whistler's preference and polemical purpose, collectors and dealers tend to describe representational works of art by their subject. Years pass, paintings change hands, and Whistler’s Harmony in violet and yellow (no. 21) becomes The Yellow Room. Sands; blue note (no. 45) becomes Low Tide.

Collectors and art historians have been trying to identify the sixty-seven paintings shown at the Dowdeswelis' gallery for more than one hundred years. The first person to play this game was the Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), founder of the Freer Gallery of Art. Freer began collecting Whistler prints in 1887 and first met Whistler in 1890. Freer and Whistler became close friends in the late 1890s. By the time Freer retired in 1900, he had begun amassing what he hoped would become a comprehensive collection of Whistler's work. Freer devoted the rest of his life to collecting art, concentrating on work by Whistler and on works of Asian art that he thought were aesthetically sympatheticto Whistler's. Freerspentallof May and most ofjune 1902 in England and Scotland, purchasing a few lapanese paintings, butfocusing his energies on the pursuit of work by Whistler. Freer bought from galleries, collectors, and the artist himself, acquiring major works from every period of Whistler's career including The White Symphony: Three Girls (ca. 1868), Nocturne: Grey and Silver— Chelsea Embankment, Winter ( 1879), and Rose and Gold: The Little Lady Sophie of Soho (1898-99), all three of which are now at the Freer. The most expensive purchase that Freer made during this buying spree was on |une3, 1902, when he boughtthirty-one small Whistleroil paintings, watercolors, and pastels from the London barrister Sir Henry Studdy Theobald (1847-1934). Theobald had purchased most of these works from the Dowdeswelis’ gallery on july 1, 1885, and most— butnotall— ofthem had been included inthe 1884 exhibition.1

It seems unlikely that Freer had a chance to study the Theobald paintingsand drawings while he was in London with Whistler, but after returning to Detroit he attempted to reconnect his purchases with their 1884 titles. Like subsequent art historians, Freer did this by trying to match the paintings and drawings with titles in the 1884 exhibition catalogue. Fortunately, the catalogue identified every work in the exhibition by title and medium: oil paintings were described by title alone, drawings were identified parenthetically by medium (as watercolors or pastels: see figure 2). In addition to the catalogue, Freer also used an 1887 manuscript that Theobald had sent him, in which Whistler provided titles for fifteen works that he hoped to borrow and exhibit at the Exposition Internationale de Peinture etde Sculpture at the Galerie Georges Petit in Paris. Unfortunately, Whistler's 1887 list has since disappeared.2

The results of Freer's research are clearly laid out in a typescript inventory titled "Oil Paintings, Water Colours and Pastels purchased from H. S. Theobald." Although

undated, Freer probably created the inventory during the winter of 1906, when he was preparing lists of all objects he intended to donate to the Smithsonian Institution. 3 The inventory is organized by medium. Nothing on the sheet explains the parenthetical question marks that appear next toten ofthethirty-onetitles — all locatedtowardsthe bottom ofoneofthe three categories— but a comparison of Freer’s list with subsequent scholarly efforts to identify his purchases with titles in the 1884 catalogue makes clear that the question marks indicate works that he could not confidently connect to a specific work i ncluded inthe 1884 exhibition. In making his identifications, Freerseemsto have mainly relied on the 1884 catalogue and the now missing 1887 list, but he may have picked up additional information from his conversations with Theobald and Whistler. Even though Freer was working with the 1884 catalogue, his titles for works that he thought were in that show are not always an exact match for the published titles. In general, the titles he gives for the oils and pastels are much less exact than the titles he gives for the watercolors.

Given the limited information that was available, Freer did remarkably well. Of the ten titles he marked with a question mark, it now seems likely that none of the bottom three watercolors and none of the three pastels were in the 1884 exhibition. Three of the other titles with a question mark were probably in the show, but under different titles and — in one case — media. Thus, the painting Freer called Low-Tide was probably Sands; blue note (no. 45); 4 Note in Red was probably Red and blue— Lindsey Houses (no. 4); and the watercolor A Note in Green was probably Yellow and grey (no. 43), which was listed in the 1884 catalogue as an oil painting, but which period reviewssuggestwasactually a watercolor. Freer also seems to have mismatched two watercolors. The drawing he thought was Petit Dejeuner: Note in opal (no. 13), was probably in the 1884 exhibition as Violet and amber— Tea (no. 35). And the watercolor he thought was The Studio — Note in pink and purple (no. 27), seems to have been in the show as Violet and red (no. 6 or 10). Neither Violet and amber— Tea nor Violet and red seem to have been included in the 1887 Paris exhibition, so neither would have appeared on the missing 1887 list. The fact that Freer gave these two drawings titles taken directly from the 1884 catalogue suggests that while some of the identifications in the 1906 inventory may have derived from information that was supplied by Theobald or Whistler, others were based mainly or solelyon Freer'seffortsto match the Theobald paintingsand drawings with titles he found inthe 1884 catalogue. 4

The one other title that Freer marked with a question mark, The White House, remains a puzzle. Freer's placement of this title well up from the bottom of his list of oils, and above three paintings that probably were in the 1884 exhibition, suggeststhat hethought The White House was probably in the Dowdeswell and Dowdeswelis show but could not link it to any one title. The authors of the catalogue raisonne suggest that it was probably exhibited at Dowdeswell and Dowdeswelis in either 1884 or 1886, but do not suggest any specific match. Style and provenance

suggestthat The White House might have been shown in the 1884 exhibition, but none of the period exhibition reviews contain a description that fits it. Moreover, The White House is not a good match for any of the unaccounted for oil paintings. Although far from conclusive, the existing evidence suggests that The White House was probably not included inthe 1884 exhibition. Not counting The White House, twenty-four of the thirty-one paintings and drawings Freer purchased from Theobald were definitely or probably included in the 1884 exhibition. A strikingly high percentage of the small oils and watercolors Freer acquired between I902and hisdeath in i9i9werealsointhe Dowdeswelland Dowdeswells exhibition, which suggests thatafteracquiringtheTheobaldcollection he made some effort to reassemble as much of the 1884 show as possible.

Like Freer, modern scholars attempting to identify the paintingsand drawings included inthe 1884 exhibition rely on information in the exhibition catalogue and provenance. But contemporary art historians have access to an important source of information that Freer did not have.

Like many successful artists today, Whistler hired clipping services to collect newspaper and magazine articles about him. Whistler had these cuttings pasted into scrapbooks, which were eventually given to the University of Glasgow. The Whistler press-cutting books contain hundreds of exhibition reviews, including almost forty of the 1884 Dowdeswelland Dowdeswellsexhibition. Manyofthese reviews include descriptions of Whistler's work, enabling scholars to identify many of the paintings and drawings in the show. Art historians began mining the press-cutting books in the 1960s, and the fruits of their labors are summarized in two catalogues raisonne, which document almostallofWhistler's known oils, watercolors, pastels, and drawings. Many of my identifications derive from materials presented in these indispensable resources. 5

Finally, frames too can be used to help identify paintings and drawings from the 1884 exhibition. As discussed inthe main essay in this book, twenty-five of the paintings and watercolors atthe Freerthatcan be traced backtothe 1884 exhibition are housed in vintage frames, many of which still carry Dowdeswelland Dowdeswells labels on the reverse. The design and manufacture of all ofthese frames is consistent, suggesting that all were made at one time, although they exist in two sizes. Six of the twenty-five are 43/8 inches wide. Four ofthe43/s inch-wide frames hold tiny 3V2 x 5V4 inch oil paintings, the smallest works in the Dowdeswellshow. The nineteen other vintage frames have a molding width of 59/i6 inches. Freer acquired three of the tiny paintings from Theobald who purchased most of the smallest paintings in the 1884 exhibition, so it seems likely that the vast majority of the works in the 1884 exhibition were housed in the 5V16 inch-wide frames— probably as many as fifty-five of the sixty-seven works in the show. A frame with a molding of 59/i6 inches is unusually wide for a small oil painting, watercolor, or pastel , so it is not surprising that the reviewer for the Globe complained that the Dowdeswells' gallery frames were "massive."6 By way of

comparison, the similar frame Whistler designed for the 1881 exhibition of his Venice pastels at the Fine Art Society was only 4V2 inches wide. The exaggerated width of the 1884 frames may explain why so many of them have been lost, but when they do survive they can be used to identify a work as having probably been in the exhibition. The fact that Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple ( Cincinnati Museumof Art) is in a vintage frame made from the same unusual 59/i6 inch-wide molding found on many of the Freer paintings was a crucial clue contributing to my identification of it as probably being Dowdeswellnumer6ornumberi0, both titled Violet and red.

Drawing on all these kinds of clues, I have identified fifty- seven of the sixty-seven works that were shown at the Dowdeswells' gallery in 1884. Some of my identifications seem certain. Others are more tentative. When I am unsure of an identification, I have qualified it as either "probable" or "possible." In order to let the reader join in the game of identification, reference catalogue entries include all relevant descriptionsfrom contemporary reviews. Information about provenance, frames, inscriptions, and old exhibition labels is included only when it helps identify a painting or drawing as having been included in the 1884 Dowdeswelland Dowdewells exhibition.

on, PA INTI

f

'/7\ /£1i> Cp

CLOURS sflm PASTELS purely^

//} .

It. 3. TKEG5At/,li .

OIL PAINT! 1:;: 3

A .HSCTIIRNE. ’’OPAL Aim SILVER," ^

" PETITE MEPKISTE. ”

” GRmi A Li} GOLD - THE GREAT -i "'CHELSEA SHOPS."

At ” BLUE A 103 GREY - UHI.OA3.I3iG." ^

* "HARMONY In’bROV/n’aND GOLD ~ OLD CHELSEA Cl >v "BLUE AM3 GREEN - TEE COAL Sr APT. *’ ^

\ "THE ".'HITE HOUSE." (?)

*<- "’,70 H THEY - NOTE IN OR SEE « " ^

if "LOW- TIDE." (?)

"A NOTE IN RED.” (?) ^

y l -

7

3

"PINK NOTE - THE NOVELETTE. ” ^ ROOT... RLE. "3 ,ACK AND RED - RACK i ■ 3LD -

NOCTURNE. "GRAND CANAL, AES 'CERDA! " PETIT DEJEUNER - NOT.!:; Hi OPAL." "THU STUDIO - NOTE IN PINK ART "HARMONY IN •■rOLET AMD AMBER."

A NOTE I V GREEN." (?)

PINE NOTE - SHELLING PSAS." l~- "BRAVURA IN BRO’-U!. "

"GREY AND SILVER - PIER, SOUTH "OPAL BEACH. "

"THE MOUTH OF THE RIVER. ” (?)

" THE BATHERS . " (?) ^

" T I'D A NC KORA GE . " ( ? )

’

"RESTING. " (?)

(?)

,821.91

17B.0B

AI» ,110: LLAND.

PURE

1

A

Figure 1.

“Oil Paintings, Water Coloursand Pastels purchased from H. S. Theobald", typescript, ca. 1906.

Charles Lang Freer Papers, Freer Gallery of Art Archives, Gift of the Estate of Charles Lang Freer.

Page 84 Figure 2.

" Notes “Harmonies”—

"Nocturnes”

(London: Dowdeswelland Dowdeswells, 1884).

Freer Gallery of Art Library, Gift of Charles Lang Freer. Marginalannotationsare by Freer, and evidence h is effort to match his purchases with their 1884 titles.

83

y.

r** .

V

Identifying Paintingsand Drawings

VOTES’ t’ARifOV,’! V

•• xocrumES.”

USt

11 NOTES HARMONIES “ NOCTURNES."

I 'VVs^2

L'ENVOIE.

84

To say of a picture, as io often said in Us praise, that it shoos great and comes* labour, is to say that it is incom- plete and unfit for view.

evidence of the came, in the production, K a blemish, not a quality; — a proof, oot of achievement, but of absolutely insufficient trork. for work alone trill efface the footsteps of

effort, — and is finish

menl of goodwill and foolishness.

PAINTINGS-DRAWINGS-PASTELS.

’’ i- The Pier ; a grey note.

а. The Angry Sen.

3- Nocturne; grey and gold— Canal; Holland, (if

q. Red and blue— Lindsey Houses.

S- Grey and silver— Pnrfleet. (Weftr-rAmr.)

б. Violet and red,

7. Green and opal — The Village.

8. The Little Grocery, Chelsea ; grey and rod.

( IVaUr^Aeur.)

9. Nocturne in grey and gold— Piccadilly. (Wa.'tr

cAonr.)

to. Violet and red.

it. Chelsea ; yellow and grey.

J2. Pink and opal — Harbour.

: 3. Petit Dfejcuocr; note in opt I. (H'tfrr.r.i/.mr.l rq. Erith— Evening. ( H’afrwoW.) ij. Black and retl. (IPafrr-re/mr.)

r «e.

St

Pink note — The Novelette. (IPairr-flrftw.)

Note in red — The Siesta.

Grand Canal, Amsterdam; nocturne. (1 Valer- cAatr.)

Harmony in violet anti amber. (IPalrr-refoitr.) Pick note — Shelling Peas. ( Wttltr-eAmr.) Harmony in violet and yellow. (Water-cAmr.) Grey Mist at Sea. (IValer-tAcsT.)

Pink note — Chelsea.

Nocturne ; silver and opal — Chelsea. Arrangement in black— Reading.

Note in pink and purple. (lVa/rr-obW.)

Moreby Hall. (Wiltr-cAeHr.')

Bine and white— Dutch. (Walcr-akur.) Variations in violet.

Scherzo in blue — The Blue Girl.

Blue and gold — The Schooner.

Violet and sDvct — The Great Sea. cr y i****- “

Violet and ember — Tea. (W<t!rr<Ac<iT.)

Sea and Storm ; grey and green.

The Green Headland.

J

38. An orange note — Sweet Shop.

39. Blue and silver — The Sunny Sea. (Wc!cr-cAo nr.)

40. Sea and Mist ; note in grey.

41. Little Shop ; grey note.

42. Harmony in yellow and brown— Sunday.

43. Yellow and grey.

y 44. Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea

4j. Sands ; blue note.

46. The Little Bay ; blue and brown.

47. Twilight ; gold and grey. (lyafcr^ofuBr.)

4S. Blue and opal— Herring Fleet.

49. Nocturne, black and gold — Winter ; Amstcr

dam. (WaUr-^Aair.)

50. Blue and silver — Tbc Islands, Venice. (PaslA. S 51. Red and pink — La Petite Mephisto.

52. Note in blue and opal — Tire Sun Clorgl. y/ 53. Nocturne; black and red — Back Canal, Hol- land. (WaUr<t>loxt.)

54. Grey and silver Mist — Life Boat.

55. Sunrise ; gold and grey. {Walrr-cAcur.) j 56. Blue and grey — Unloading.

57. Note in violet and flesh colour. (Past/I.)

58. Nocturne ; Mack and gold— No, 0, Kag Shop.

Chelsea,

— 59. Black and Emerald — Coal Mine.

60. The Little Alley ; grey.

61. Red and black. (Wairr^Awr.)

6a. Grey and silver— Pier, Southend. (Watcr-oT.ur.)

63. Old Siiop, Chelsea ; pink and grey. ( Walri-

64. Caprice in red.

63. Parasol ; red note. (Pailci.) eg. Bravura in brown. ( Wnlrr^Amr.) yS 67. Opal Beach. ( Wn!rr-cA<ar.)

Reference Catalogue

The Pier; a grey note

December 1883 or lanuary 1884 Oil on wood panel, 37/i6 x 5u/i6 in.

Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Plate 7 YMSM 286 Dowdeswell 1

"Some of the works he now exhibits have no more claim to be accounted pictures than an acorn to be described as an oak, or a heap of bricks as a house From the contemplation of productions crude, immature, and like King Richard, 'but half made up,' such as 'The Pier,’ 'The Angry Sea' [no. 2], 'Pink and Opal Harbour’ [no. 12], ‘Purfleet’ [no. 5], and too many of the same class, we turn with pleasant sense of relief to performances which show their artist at his best, and prove of what fine work he is capable when he conde- scends to do himself justice." — "Messrs. Dowdeswelt’s Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884

The Angry Sea

December 1883 or january 1884 Oil on wood panel, 47/s x 8V2 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1904.76

Plate 4 YMSM 282 Dowdeswell 2

HISTORY With Goupil Gallery (London) by 1901. Sold by Goupil Gallery to the art dealer |ohn |ames Cowan (Edinburgh) as Sky, steamer, sea & sandy shore. Cowan sent Whistler a verbal description, a sketch and a photograph of the panel, and Whistler identified it as The Angry Sea, specifying that it was a view of St. Ives. (John James Cowan to Whistler, February 25, 1901 and November 19, 1902, GUL-WC). The painting is also dis- cussed, as The Angry Sea, in Charles Lang Freer to john lames Cowan, October 13, 1902 (FGAA-FP). Lent by Cowan to the annual exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Edinburgh 1904) as The Angry Sea (no. 314). Sold by Cowan (through William Marchant and Co., London deal- ers) to Charles Lang Freer (June 13, 1904). Bequeathed to Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"This wonderful artist uses frames of greenish gold wherever the picture requires such a setting, noticeably for his marine studies. A strip of angry grey-green sea, framed in green gold, against a dull pink background, is an exquisite arrangement of colour, worthy to be adopted by the costumiere [sic] of the period." — "Causerie," Court Circular, May 24, 1884

"What would Mr. Clark Russell say to the anger of 'The Angry Sea' (2)?" — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr Whistler's Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray,” Academy, May 24,

1884

Nocturne; grey and gold — Canal; Holland

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper, ll7/ 16 x gVis in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5V16 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.160

Plate 23 M945 Dowdeswell 3

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 235). Sold through Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1,

1885). Probably exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Nocturne en gris et or (no. 181). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (|une 3, 1902), Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919-

Red and blue — Lindsey Houses

ca. 1882-84

Oil on wood panel, 5 Vi x 9V4 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.157

Plate 16 YMSM 306 Dowdeswell 4

history Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

Grey and silver— Purfleet

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on beige paper, laid down on card,

65/i6 x 83/t in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.117

Plate 19 M883 Dowdeswell 5

history Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 256). Exhibited at the International Art Exhibition (Munich 1888). Exhibited in

"Notes— Harmonies— Nocturnes" (New York: Wunderlich Gallery, 1889) as Grey and Silver— Purled [sic] (no. 35). Sold by Whistler's Company of the Butterfly to Charles Lang Freer (1902). Bequeathed to the Freer in 1919.

"(5) Grey and Silver is a very beautiful little water-colour drawing ... representing chiefly pale broken clouds, in a wan and watery sky." — "Mr. Whistler’s Gallery," Standard, May 20, 1884

"Some even of the slightest sketches have, in an eminent degree, the charm of colour and suggestiveness. The water-colour, 'Violet and Red,' for instance, in which the forms of two ladies seated at a table are vaguely indicat- ed, and that called 'Grey and Silver,’ Purfleet." — Globe, May 20, 1884

Grey and silver— Purfleet is "remarkably clever in indicat- ing cloud effects "—Home journal, March 15, 1889

Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple

Probably 1884

Oil on wood, 12 x 9 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/is in. molding Cincinnati Art Museum Plate 47 YMSM 324

Probably Dowdeswell 6 or 10, both titled "Violet and red"

history YMSM suggests that Whistler painted Arrangement in Pink, Red and Purple during a brief visit to Dieppe in the autumn of 1885, but this cannot be cor- rect since the distinctive curved red couch appears in sev- eral paintings completed in Whistler’s London studio. The couch appears in YMSM 254 and 255 (Dowdeswell 17 and 51) and M898 (Dowdeswell 10). The couch and the dress both appear in M907. All these works were probably com- pleted between February and May 1884.

"When we come to study the paintings separately, of course there is much more room for difference of opinion. Some of them, though bearing such high-sounding and significant titles, are little better than daubs; others, which appear so at first view, and on close inspection, fall into their place wonderfully when viewed at what we take to be the distance the painter intended: numbers 6 and 9, for instance." — The Builder, May 24, 1884

Green and Silver: The Devonshire Cottages

1883 or 1884

Oil on canvas, 125/s x 24V4 i n .

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1906.227

Plate 9 YMSM 266

Possibly Dowdeswell 7, "Green and opal— the Village"

"How about the palette knife in 'Green and Opal— The Village' (7) — has it not played a heavy part?" — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

Reference Catalogue

A Chelsea Street

Probably 1883 or 1884 Watercolor on white paper,

415/i6 x 8V16 in.

Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center For British Art,

New Haven Plate 29 M953

Probably Dowdeswell 8, "The Little Grocery, Chelsea; grey and red"

'"The Little Grocery' (8) appears to hint in the foreground at a small black figure without legs moving on an invisi- ble bicycle; motiveless, missionless, a joy to the artist, and also a sweet boon to the literary man. With rare deli- cacy, Mr, Whistler commonly suppresses the legs of the figures in his designs, or merely generalises them into something vague, fleeting, attenuated, spiritual. He also avoids personal caricature by leaving the features of some of his models almost wholly to the fancy of the spectator. 'Leave it to you, sir,' as cabmen sometimes say, is on these occasions his motto." — "Mr. Whistler's Gallery," Standard, May 20, 1884

“We turn with [a] pleasant sense of relief to performances which show their artist at his best, and prove of what fine work he is capable when he condescends to do himself justice. In this honorable category may be mentioned,... 'The Little Grocery,

86 Chelsea,’ a small picture, lovely in tone and colour and full of quaint antique beauty.” — "Messrs. Dowdeswell's Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884

Nocturne in grey and gold — Piccadilly

1881-83

Watercolor on white wove paper,

83/4 x iiy2 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/is i n . wide molding National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin Plate 27 M862 Dowdeswell 9

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884), as Grey and Gold: Piccadilly (no. 251). Acting as Whistler's agent, the organizer of the Dublin exhibition, William Booth Pearsall, sold Nocturne in grey and gold— Piccadilly and Sunrise ; gold and grey (Dowdeswell 55) to lonathan Hogg (Whistler to William Booth Pearsall, between December 19 and 26, 1884, LC-PC, box C, folder 8). After Whistler's death, Pearsall reported to Whistler's biographers, that during the Dublin exhibition he had induced lonathan Hogg "to purchase Piccadilly, which had been No. 9, Nocturne in Grey and Gold— Piccadilly (watercolor) in his exhibition in Bond Street that May [Dowdeswell's]." Quoted in Elizabeth R. Pennell and |oseph Pennell, The Life of lames McNeill Wh/st/er (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1911), pp. 239-40. Bequeathed by lonathan Hogg to the National Gallery of Ireland (July 1930).

"(9) Piccadilly. Mr. Whistler calls this a 'Nocturne in grey and gold.’ One faintly makes out the passengers on the top of an omnibus, and very yellow light streaming from win- dows. The horses are 'understood.'" — "Mr. Whistler's Gallery,” Standard, May 20, 1884

"Mr. Whistler is ... the apostle of that artless art which portrays Piccadilly with a blur of grey and a dot of gold." — Society, May 22, 1884

"How tantalizing it is to pass on to the next work (9) 'Nocturne in grey and gold — Piccadilly,’ and find one of the most enchanting little atmospheric gems one could well desire to possess " — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

"Whistler sent many of the paintings and drawings that did not sell at the spring 1884 exhibition at the Dowdeswells to a December, 1884 show at the Dublin Sketching Club: "Silver and Gold, Chelsea [no. 25]; Grand Canal, Amsterdam [no. 18]; Grey and Gold, Piccadilly— show a considerable range of effect, from the vaporous stillness (scene of twinkling lights) of quiet Dutch canals and the Thames at Chelsea to the gas illumined, smoky atmosphere of Piccadilly, bustling with laden omnibuses, Hansom cabs, and hurrying figures in the roar and activi- ty of this great London thoroughfare."— Daily Express, lanuary 12, 1885

Note in Pink and Purple: The Studio

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper, ll15/i6 x 87/s in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame,

59/i6 in. wide molding

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.163

Plate 38 M898

Probably Dowdeswell 10 or 6, both titled "Violet and red"

HISTORY Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (|uly 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in -1919.

"Some even of the slightest sketches have, in an eminent degree, the charm of colour and suggestiveness. The water-colour, 'Violet and Red,' for instance, in which the forms of two ladies seated at a table are vaguely indicated.” — Globe, May 20, 1884

"Mr. Whistler[’s] ... recent studies and sketches ... are var- ied in subject, and differ from each other very widely in merit. The majority are of the slightest kind, mere memo- randa of effects of light and colour, such as other artists retain in their studios for reference. A few of these, vague as they are, and without any definition of form, are charming by reason of their subtle beauty of colour and

suggestiveness. 'The Novelette’ [no. 16], in which the fig- ure of a lady reading in bed is faintly indicated, the figure of a girl seen through a doorway 'Shelling Peas' [no. 20], and the interior called ‘Violet and Red’ are among the best of these very slight watercolour sketches.”— “Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Graphic, May 24, 1884

Street in Old Chelsea

Early 1880s

Oil on wood panel, 5% x gVs in.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Plate 31 ymsm 249

Probably Dowdeswell 11, “Chelsea; yellow and grey”

"11. 'Chelsea, yellow and grey' is one of Mr. Whistler's rapid, suggestive studies of low-browed houses, shops, and the picturesque of drabs, yellows, dirty bricks, and dropping plaster." — "Mr. Whistler's Gallery," Standard, May 20, 1884

"I should think the marionettes are rather often in the streets of Chelsea from the figures that appear in (11) ‘Chelsea: yellow and grey.’” [This joke apparently refers to the foreground figures who seem to lack legs and feet.] — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

Pink and opal — Harbour

Oil, support and size unknown Whereabouts unknown ymsm 272 Dowdeswell 12

"Some of the works he now exhibits have no more claim to be accounted pictures than an acorn to be described as an oak, or a heap of bricks as a house. From the contempla- tion of productions crude, immature, and, like King Richard, 'but half made up,’ such as 'The Pier’ [no. 1],

'The Angry Sea' [no. 2], ‘Pink and Opal Harbour,' 'Purfleet’ [no. 5], and too many of the same class, we turn with pleasant sense of relief to performances which show their artist at his best, and prove of what fine work he is capable when he condescends to do himself justice.’’ — "Messrs. Dowdeswell’s Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884

Convalescent

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on off-white paper,

95/s x 63/4 in.

Private Collection Plate 41 M903

Probably Dowdeswell 13, "Petit Dejeuner; note in opal"

"Then there is the 'Petit Dejeuner’ (No. 13), — otherwise 'note in opal' — in which the ghost of a warm-coloured blonde reads a pale blue book in bed, breakfast waiting on the table at her side." — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884

"‘Petit Dejeuner’ indicates a lady who has breakfasted in bed, and is reading a novel. A fine frowsiness is delicately conveyed to the sense of the spectator.’’ — “Mr. Whistler’s Gallery," Standard, May 20, 1884

'“Petit Dejeuner,’ a beautiful note in opal.” — "Messrs. Dowdeswell’s Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884

"The ‘Petit Dejeuner’ (13)— a note in opal— is of a curious delicacy in slightness, such as hardly anybody but Mr. Whistler could command." — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr Whistler’s Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray," Academy, May 24, 1884

"Let us turn from [An orange note — Sweet Shop (no. 38)] to ‘Le Petit Dejeuner: note in opal.' Here we have a pale delicate water colour representing a young lady break- fasting in bed and reading a blue-covered book. This is one of the most graceful and refined drawings in the room. The face and hand are beautifully drawn, full of feeling, and are coloured with that fine sense the artist possesses in such a marked degree; and his nobility of ‘style’ and manner of work are shown in this drawing to great advantage. — [Walter Dowdeswell], "Mr. Whistler and His Art,” Artist and lournal of Home Culture, june 1, 1884.

"In several [works], notably ‘Le Petit Dejeuner’ and a pic- ture close by — a single girl figure — is found a curious effect (or defect). The face is skilfully [sic] and delicately drawn, and then washed over with a film of white, which seems to serve no purpose but that of obscuring the fea- tures.’’—"Philistine," “Mr. Whistler and His Artifices,” The Artist and lournal of Home Culture, July 1, 1884

Erith — Evening

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on beige paper, laid down on card,

S11/*; x 97/i6 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5%; in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.168

Plate 20 M884 Dowdeswell 14

HISTORY Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Probably exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Note en argent: Erith sur Tamise (no. 182). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (june 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

”... and the warm grey sunset of Erith (No. 14)." — "Mr. Whistler’s Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884

"The colour in ‘Erith — Evening’ (14) is very good.’’ — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

Black and red

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on white laid paper, 9 x 6V4 in.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Plate 42 M936 Dowdeswell 15

"How much dignity in the attitude, in the pose of the head, of the lady who sits up straight in her small straight chair and hangs one arm behind it!" — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr. Whistler’s Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray," Academy, May 24, 1884

"We turn with [a] pleasant sense of relief to performanc- es which show their artist at his best, and prove of what fine work he is capable when he condescends to do him- self justice. In this honorable category may be men- tioned, for example, ... 'Black and Red,’ a charming study of a girl whose dress is arranged in those two hues" ‘Messrs. Dowdeswells’ Gallery,’" — "Messrs. Dowdeswell’s Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884

"Along side (no. 13, Le Petit Dejeuner ; note in opal] hangs another water colour, striking as strong a note as ‘Petit Dejeuner' strikes a sweet one. A girl, dressed in dull Indian violet, seated on a slim yellow chair, holds her black shawl and hat on her lap; the exquisitely modelled [s/c] head and hair, simply but wonderfully delineated, set easily and happily on a graceful figure; a few bold, vigorous touches give us her black shawl and felt hat and feathers, and the folds of her dress. This drawing is one of the first that attracts the eye. It rings like a bell.’’ — [Walter Dowdeswell], “Mr, Whistler and His Art," Artist and lournal of Home Culture, |une 1, 1884

Pink note— The Novelette

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on white wove paper,

915/i6 x67i6in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5%; in. wide molding.

Dowdeswell label on reverse

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.158

Plate 44 M900 Dowdeswell 16

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 239). Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Rose et gris: Le Roman (no. 166). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

“Mr. Whistler's work this year is unusually varied in its apparent themes. All sorts of objects are pressed into the service of his brush — Southend pier [no. 62], the Cornish coast, a young woman dressed in a parasol and a red

headgear [no. 65], a grisette reading a French novel, a fog in Piccadilly [no. 9], a shop in Chelsea [no. 38] " —

“Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884

“A good many contain figures of young girls reading, lounging, in various attitudes, their dresses and sur- roundings giving the colour combination which is denominated ‘Pink Note’ (N.B. Not a billet-doux, but a ‘note’ in the scale of colour), or ’Harmony in Violet and Amber’ [no. 19]. These figures are very slightly sketched, and their faces will certainly not bear looking close at; but they nearly all have character in pose, and show that there is good drawing underlying their shadowy simili- tude; one in particular, 'Yellow and Grey’ (43), a girl standing before a background of yellow, is charming in attitude and in the masterly indication of the figure.” —

The Builder, May 24, 1884

"Mr. Whistler[’s] ... recent studies and sketches ... are varied in subject, and differ from each other very widely in merit. The majority are of the slightest kind, mere memoranda of effects of light and colour, such as other artists retain in their studios for reference. A few of these, vague as they are, and without any definition of form, are charming by reason of their subtle beauty of colour and suggestiveness. ‘The Novelette,’ in which the figure of a lady reading in bed is faintly indicated, the figure of a girl seen through a doorway ’Shelling Peas’ [no. 20], and the interior called 'Violet and Red' [no. 6 or no. 10], are among 87 the best of these very slight watercolour sketches.” —

“Mr. Whistler’s Exhibition," Graphic, May 24, 1884

"The color in ‘Erith — Evening' (14) is very good. So is it in (16), 'Pink note— The Novelette’ in which, however, a delighted devourer of penny sentimentalities is seen read- ing upon a bed. Of course a girl with legs about six feet long might be expected to develop strange penchants’.' — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 236) . Exhibited at the International Art Exhibition (Munich 1888), as Eine rote Stimmung (no. 58). Exhibited in "Notes — Harmonies — Nocturnes" (New York: Wunderlich Gallery, 1889), as A Red Note — The Sofa (no. 26). Sold by Goupil Gallery, London to Sir George Drummond (December 21, 1891). Through several private owners, detailed in catalogue raisonnee, to Daniel Terra (1982). Bequeathed to the Terra Foundation for the Arts (1996).

Note in red — The Siesta

Probably 1883 or 1884

Oil on wood panel, 8V2 x 12 in

Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago

Plate 46 ymsm 254

Dowdeswell 17

Reference Catalogue

"Stronger still [than no. 15] is a 'Note in Red— The Siesta,' in oil; a girl in red and white drapery lies huddled up on a red and grey covered sofa, painted in a most mas- terful manner." — [Walter Dowdeswell], "Mr. Whistler and His Art," Artist and lournal of Home Culture, |une 1, 1884

"‘A Red Note— The Sofa,' an oil sketch of a young woman asleep on cushions" — "Etchings, Drawings, Pastels," A lew York Times, March 3, 1889

Grand Canal, Amsterdam; nocturne

1883 or 1884

Watercoior on cream wove paper,

87/s x ii3/i6 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5V16 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.161

Plate 24 M944 Dowdeswell 18

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 232). Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (|uly 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"‘The Grand Canal, Amsterdam,’ is a 'nocturne’ not with- out picturesque effect, but in the absence of those 88 schuyts, tjalks, &c., which give such bustle and anima- tion to the actual scene, the picture can hardly be said to present a characteristic view. As well might Cheapside be painted, without cabs and omnibuses.” — "Messrs. Dowdeswell’s Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884

"18, 'The Grand Canal at Amsterdam,' with luminous yel- low lights and reflections." — "Whistles," Topical Times, May 24, 1884

"Whistler sent many of the paintings and drawings that did not sell at the spring 1884 exhibition at the Dowdeswells to a December, 1884 show at the Dublin Sketching Club: Silver and Cold, Chelsea [no. 25]; Grand Canal, Amsterdam; Grey and Gold, Piccadilly [no. 9] — show a considerable range of effect, from the vaporous stillness (scene of twinkling lights) of quiet Dutch canals and the Thames at Chelsea to the gas illumined, smoky atmosphere of Piccadilly... ” — Daily Express, January 12, 1885

Harmony in violet and amber

1883 or 1884

Watercoior on cream paper, laid down on card,

913/i6 x 67/i6 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5V16 in. wide molding

Dowdeswell label on reverse

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.164

Plate 43 M906 Dowdeswell 19

HISTORY Possibly sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to E.J. Poole (ca, 1885). Sold by Poole or Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (by 1888). Probably exhibited at the International Art Exhibition (Munich 1888) as Variation in Violet und Gold. Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902).

Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"A good many contain figures of young girls reading, lounging, in various attitudes, their dresses and surroundings giving the colour combination which is denominated 'Pink Note’ [no. 16] (N.B. Not a billet-doux, but a ‘note’ in the scale of colour), or ‘Harmony in Violet and Amber.’ These figures are very slightly sketched, and their faces will certainly not bear looking close at; but they nearly all have character in pose, and show that there is good drawing underlying their shadowy simili- tude; one in particular, 'Yellow and Grey' (43), a girl standing before a background of yellow, is charming in attitude and in the masterly indication of the figure.’’ — The Builder, May 24, 1884

Pink note — Shelling Peas

1883 or 1884

Watercoior on cream wove paper, 9V2 x SsA in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5V16 in. wide molding

Dowdeswell label on reverse

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.166

Plate 45 M925 Dowdeswell 20

HISTORY Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Then there is the charming little water colour, No. 20, which Mr. Whistler, addressing the initiated, calls 'Pink note,' but which, remembering the outsider with a meas- ure of tenderness, he styles also 'Shelling Peas’— what a pretty little vision of the coolest of sunny light." — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884

"Mr. Whistler[’s] ... recent studies and sketches ... are varied in subject and differ from each other very widely in merit. The majority are of the slightest kind, mere memoranda of effects of light and colour, such as other artists retain in their studios for reference. A few of these, vague as they are, and without any definition of form, are charming by reason of their subtle beauty of colour and suggestiveness. ’The Novelette' [no. 16], in which the figure of a lady reading in bed is faintly indi- cated, the figure of a girl seen through a doorway 'Shelling Peas,’ and the interior called 'Violet and Red' [no. 6 or no. 10], are among the best of these very slight watercolour sketches.” — "Mr. Whistler’s Exhibition," Graphic, May 24, 1884

"We turn with [a] pleasant sense of relief to perform- ances which show their artist at his best, and prove of what fine work he is capable when he condescends to do himself justice. In this honorable category may be men- tioned, for example,... ’Shelling Peas,' a pretty drawing, especially to be commended for the daylight outlook and the tenderly painted figure of the girl who is shelling.” — "Messrs. Dowdeswell's Gallery," Morning Post, May 24, 1884

"Perhaps (20) 'Pink Note — Shelling Peas’ is the best work of all, the effect of sunlight is so good — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

The Yellow Room

1883 or 1884

Watercoior on off-white paper, g13/^ x 7 in.

Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Anonymous Loan Plate 40 M881

Possibly Dowdeswell 21, "Harmony in violet and yellow"

"The 'Petit Dejeuner’ (13)— a note in opal — is of a curious delicacy in slightness, such as hardly anybody but Mr. Whistler could command. No. 21 is, in its own way, as successful and as exquisite." — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr. Whistler's Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray," Academy, May 24, 1884

Grey Mist at Sea

1883 or 1884

Watercoior on white wove paper, 59/i6 x 97/ie in. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery Plate 17 M938 Dowdeswell 22

history Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Wilson King, American consul in Birmingham, England, July 1884 (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Whistler, between July 1885 and late 1886, GUL-WC). Given by King’s daughter, Mrs. Giles, to the Birmingham City Art Gallery in 1930.

"ship sailing on some flat very sandy [dunes]." — Charles Lang Freer, manuscript annotation in Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells, "Notes" — "Harmonies" — "Nocturnes" (1884), Freer Gallery of Art Library [Rare: 759.1 W582

1884 c.l]

Chelsea Shops

Early 1880s

Oil on wood panel, 5V4 x 9V4 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5s/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.149

Plate 32 YMSM 246

Probably Dowdeswell 23, "Pink note — Chelsea;” or, possibly, Dowdeswell 42, "Harmony in yellow and brown — Sunday"

HISTORY Probably sold by Dowdesweli and Dowdesweils to Henry Studdy Theobald duly l, 1885). Probably exhibit- ed at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Rose et brun: Les Boutiques de Chelsea (no. 208). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"A clever study of a sweetshop is called an orange note [no. 38]. A study of Old Chelsea Church is called a harmony in brown and gold [no. 44]. Another view of Chelsea, described as a pink note, is more elaborate than the others ...’’ — "Art Notes,” Liverpool Mercury,

July 3, 1884

Note in red and violet — Nets

1884

Oil on wood panel, 4V4 X 8V2 in.

Whereabouts unknown ymsm 269 Dowdesweli 24

Reproduced from a photograph in the /. & E. R. Pennell Collection, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Nocturne: silver and opal — Chelsea

ca. 1880-84

Oil on wood panel, 8 x ioVs in.

Period Dowdesweli Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.146

Plate 28 YMSM 309 Dowdesweli 25

history Sold by Dowdesweli and Dowdesweils to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Nocturne en opale: Chelsea (no. 165). Exhibited at the Goupil Gallery (London 1891) as Nocturne: Opal and Silver (no. 11). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Than the 'Nocturne, Silver and Opal,’ Mr. Whistler has never painted a finer work. It is preferable to his 'Valparaiso.’ There is not an artist with as true or fine a sense of the mystery and infinity of night as Mr. Whistler, and this little picture, full of space and atmosphere, is

impressive in its solemnity.’’ — [Walter Dowdesweli], "Mr. Whistler and His Art,” Artistist and journal of Home Culture, June 1, 1884

"On the left hand [as you enter the gallery] is a 'Nocturne, Silver and Opal’: ('Mr. Whistler never painted a finer work!' Enthus.: loq. :) The moment I saw this, there came into my mind an old joke from 'Punch’ — 'Policeman to cabby with half-starved bony horse, "Going to have a new horse, Cabby?” The son of Nimshi, "What d’yer mean?” Apollo Agyieus, "Well, I see you've got the frame work together.’” Here is a prepared ground of a strange, hazy, smoky, colour, but where is the picture? has Chelsea melted not into thin, but thick air? is this the blank in nature which Chelsea used to fill? Careful, close study shews a blackish line, which may be meant for Chelsea-bridge, or is this a kind of 'Pons Asinorum’ over which we must pass before becoming admirers? The plain truth is, that if, knowing Chelsea well, you stand about five yards from the wall, with the aid of Mr. Whistler's work, you can conjure up a picture, of which three- quarters will be of your own mind's painting." "Philistine," “Mr. Whistler and His Artifices ," — The Artist and lournal of Home Culture, July 1, 1884

"A study of Old Chelsea Church is called a harmony in brown and gold [no. 44] . Another view of Chelsea, described as a pink note [no. 23], is more elaborate than the others: but there is an evening effect of Chelsea, called 'Nocturne in Silver and Opal,’ which shows the painter's penchant for vague indistinctness. The study rep- resents mist or smoke, with a dark line which may be meant for Chelsea or any other bridge.” — "Art Notes,” Liverpool Mercury, July 3, 1884

Whistler sent many of the paintings and drawings that did not sell at the spring 1884 exhibition at the Dowdesweils to a December, 1884 show at the Dublin Sketching Club: "Silver and Gold, Chelsea; Grand Canal, Amsterdam [no. 18]; Grey and Gold, Piccadilly [no. 9] — show a considerable range of effect, from the vaporous stillness (scene of twinkling lights) of quiet Dutch canals and the Thames at Chelsea to the gas illumined, smoky atmosphere of Piccadilly ..l' — Daily Express, January 12, 1885

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 254). Exhibited at the International Art Exhibition (Munich 1888), as Eine schwarze Stimmung (no. 59). Exhibited in "Notes — Harmonies— Nocturnes” (New York: Wunderlich Gallery,

1889), as no. 25. Acquired by Alexander Henderson by 1905. Through several private owners, detailed in catalogue raisonnee, to Christie’s, New York, May 22,

1991 (lot 245). To current owner.

In a review of "Notes — Harmonies — Nocturnes" (New York: Wunderlich Gallery, 1889), Whistler's first one-man show of paintings and drawings in the United States, this painting was described as "'An Arrangement in Blacks,' a woman reading, dimly perceived against the black ground, but yet revealing all the modelling [s/c] of her face, which is so ugly as to be interesting."— Evening Sun, March 16, 1889

HISTORY Exhibited in "Notes — Harmonies— Nocturnes”

(New York: Wunderlich Gallery, 1889), as Pink and Violet (no. 15). Acquired by Otto Goldschmidt, possible from Whistler, in the 1890s. Sold by Mme. B. Max Goldschmidt to Colnaghi, London art dealers (December 1, 1912).

Through several owners, detailed in catalogue raisonnee, to Miss M. Hanna, Cincinnati (1928). Bequeathed to 89

Cincinnati Art Museum in 1956.

"[no. 27, a watercolor], called 'A note in Pink and Purple’ is really Lady Archie Campbell, or, at all events a portion of that lady." — "Whistles," Topical Times, May 24, 1884

"In [other works], the artist’s love of the bizarre and his perversity are evident; in the amazingly ill-drawn nude figure, 'The Parasol' [no. 65], for instance, and in the inchoate adumbration of a group called ‘Note in Pink and Purple.’" — "Mr. Whistler’s Exhibition,” Graphic, May

24, 1884

Moreby Hall

1883 or 1884

Pen, brown ink, and watercolor on cream paper,

7u/i6 x 11V16 in.

Period Dowdesweli Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1904.80

Plate 53 M908 Dowdesweli 28

HISTORY Possibly sold by Dowdesweli and Dowdesweils to E.J. Poole, ca. 1885. (Dowdesweli and Dowdesweils to Whistler, between July 1885 and early 1886, GUL-WC).

Possibly reacquired by Whistler. With E. J. van Wissenlingh (London art dealer), probably by the 1890s.

Sold by van Wissenlingh to Edinburgh art dealer John

Arrangement in black — Reading

Early 1880s

Oil on wood panel, 93A x 7V2 in. Jim and Gina Liautaud Plate 51 YMSM 224 Dowdesweli 26

Note in pink and purple

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on white laid paper,

93A x 6V4 in.

Cincinnati Art Museum Plate 48 M935

Probably Dowdesweli 27, "Note in pink and purple”

Reference Catalogue

James Cowan as Morby Halt [s/c] , by 1902. (Cowan to Charles Lang Freer, November?, 1902, FGAA-FP; and Cowan to J, M. Whistler, November 19, 1902, GUL-WC) Sold by Cowan (through William Marchant and Co,, London dealers) to Charles Lang Freer (June 13, 1904). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

Zuyder Zee

ca, 1883-85

Watercolor on white wove paper,

53/sx 11 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery style frame,

5V16 in, molding

Dr. and Mrs. |ohn E. Larkin, Jr.

M962

Possibly Dowdeswell 29, "Blue and white — Dutch” (M941)

HISTORY Possibly exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884) as Blue and white— Dutch (no, 254).

Sold by Whistler to Frank J. Hecker, 13 July 1891, as Zuyder Zee. Lent by Hecker to Whistler Memorial Exhibition (Boston 1904) as Zuyder Zee (no. 97). Sold at auction, Parke Bernet, 27-8 October 1971 (no, 81). Through several galleries, detailed in catalogue raisonnee, to current owner.

Photograph courtesy of Berry-Hill Galleries, Inc.

Variations in violet

Oil, support and size unknown Whereabouts unknown YMSM 301 Dowdeswell 30

“After the 'Scherzo in Blue' [no. 31], it seems natural to come across ‘Variations in Violet’ in the form of a clever flower study.” — "Art Notes,” Liverpool Mercury, July 3,

1884

Scherzo in blue— The Blue Girl

1882

Oil on canvas, “life-size”

Presumed destroyed

For illustration, see figure 11 YMSM 226 Dowdeswell 31

"The large portrait called, with unnecessary tautology, 'Scherzo in Blue— The Blue Girl,’ would be more satisfac- tory if the girl's right eye were more nearly on a level with her left, and if her feet appeared to touch the ground on which she is supposed to stand; but the modu-

lations of colour in the dress are managed with subtle skill, and the general tone of the picture is agreeable.” — Globe, May 20, 1884

"I soon got tired of guessing Whistler's puzzles, for I am an ordinary Philistine, and cannot see why a grass field should be dignified with the name of a 'note in green’

[no. 34], or a splashy mess of black with a light here and there a nocturne, much less a blue girl a 'scherzo'. ... No,

I shall not choose Mr. Whistler's gallery to spend a happy day in. 'Scherzo, he calls it,' remarked a wondering on- looker, ‘it looks a darned sight more like a chemise!'” — Life (?), May 22, 1884

"A life-size oil painting of a child called ‘The Blue Girl’ is admirable in its way, both in colour and drawing, except (in regard to colour) the shaded side of the face, which looks as if not clean.” — The Builder May 24, 1884

“The one big picture, ‘The Blue Girl,' is to me impossible. ‘Scherzo indeed !’ said one Philistine critic, glancing at the catalogue, ‘she never wore anything of the sort 1’ and other people, associating her with a ‘girl’ of another color that hung in the Grosvenor some years ago, made even still ruder remarks.” — “Whistles," Topical Times, May 24, 1884

"The only large work in the collection, 'The Blue Girl,’ is not a favourable example of Mr. Whistler's skill in portrai- ture. His fine sense of colour is shown in the treatment of delicately modulated local tints, but the girl's head is ill- drawn, one eye being considerably higher than the other." — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Graphic, May 24, 1884

“A scherzo (why not a perielesis or a canon ad hypodia- pente) in blue is the first thing you see. A full length pic- ture of a girl, dressed in blue: when you are at the right distance (about three yards out of the gallery) the picture looks well, for the pose is masterly, the drawing fine, and the colour very pleasant; but when you come closer, in order to see the face, you are shocked to find that the young lady is suffering from eczema, or some other skin disease on the left cheek, and has a cataract in the left eye. This discovery, doubtless due to the fact that Mr. Whistler did not think it worth while to finish the picture, robs you of nearly all pleasure in it.” — "Philistine," "Mr. Whistler and His Artifices," The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, July 1, 1884.

"The piece de resistance of the Whistler exhibition is a full-length portrait of a young girl dressed in blue, and is called a scherzo in that colour. This is a dignified canvas, fine in execution and marked by a more thoughtful insight into the problem of portraiture than has charac- terised some of his pictures of this class. It might make a pendant for Gainsborough’s 'Blue Boy.”' — “Art Notes," Liverpool Mercury, July 3, 1884

Blue and gold— The Schooner

December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel, 33/s x 57/s in.

Private collection

Plate 8 ymsm 276 and 368

Dowdeswell 32

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884), as Blue and gold— The Schooner (no. 252). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Bleu et argent: La Chaloupe aux docks (no. 195). Exhibited at the Exposition General des Beaux Arts (Brussels 1890) as La Chaloupe (no. 844a). With Siegfried Bing, Paris art dealer, in 1897, as Green and Gold: The Sloop (Whistler to Bing, May 20 [1890], private collection; and ca. May 29, 1897, GUL-WC). Sold by Bing, probably about 1897, probably to Miss A. B. Jennings, New York. Lent by Miss A. B. Jennings to Whistler Memorial Exhibition (Boston 1904), as The Schooner (no. 77). Through at least one more private owner, listed in Christie's sale catalogue, to Christie's,

New York, May 23, 1990 (lot 43). To current owner.

"Beauty of handling and high finish will be specially noticed in the landscapes, principally Cornish, particularly ‘Blue and gold— the Schooner;' 'Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church' [no. 44]; ‘Grey and silver mist' [no. 54]; and ‘Blue and grey — Unloading' [no. 56]; the most brilliant in colour being a ‘Note in blue and opal — the Sun Cloud' [no. 52]” — [Walter Dowdeswell], "Mr. Whistler and His Art," The Artist and lournal of Home Culture, June 1, 1884

Violet and silver— The Great Sea

ca. 1884

Oil on wood panel, 53/s x 9V4 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.148

Plate 12 ymsm 298 Dowdeswell 33

history Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Bleu et argent: La grande Mer (no. 168). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"‘The Great Sea,’ a rough, vigorous study of the seashore." — "Messrs. Dowdeswell's Gallery,” Morning Post, May 24, 1884

Wortley; note in green

ca. 1883

Oil on wood panel, SlA x gVL in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 4 V» in. molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow Plate 2 YMSM 278

Possibly Dowdeswell 37, "The Green Headland”

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.155

Plate 3 YMSM 303 Dowdeswell 34

HISTORY For dating, see Whistler to Waldo Story, nd [1883-84?], LC-PC. Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (|uly 1, 1885). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Note en vert: Le Village de Wortley (no. 163). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"I soon got tired of guessing Whistler’s puzzles, for I am an ordinary Philistine, and cannot see why a grass field should be dignified with the name of a 'note in green,’ or a splashy mess of black with a light here and there a nocturne, much less a blue girl a ’scherzo’ [no. 31].

-Life (?), May 22, 1884

Note in Opal: Breakfast

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card, 97/s x 67/s in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding. Original Dowdeswell label on reverse Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.162

Plate 39 M897

Probably Dowdeswell 35, "Violet and Amber— Tea”

HISTORY Possibly sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to E.|. Poole (ca. 1885). Sold by Poole or Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (probably by 1888). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

’"Violet and Amber— Tea’ (35), might also be styled 'an essay in smudge.’” — "Mr. Whistler's Gallery," Standard, May 20, 1884

The Sea and Sand

Probably December 1883 or |anuary 1884 Oil on wood panel, sVt x 9V4 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 33/s in. molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.151

Plates YMSM288 Probably Dowdeswell 36,

"Sea and Storm; grey and green”

HISTORY Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

Cliffs and Breakers

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel, 47/s x 8V2 in.

history In Whistler's studio at his death (1903). Bequeathed to Miss R. Birnie Philip. Bequeathed by Miss Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow (1958).

An orange note — Sweet Shop

December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel, 43/4 x 8V2 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1904.315

Plate 33 ymsm 264 Dowdeswell 38

Inscribed on the reverse of the panel (covered by wooden backing that was added in 1938), in Whistler's writing,

"An Orange Note — Sweet Shop. No. 38 Catalogue, 'Notes, Harmonies, Nocturnes’ 1884 [signed] Whistler butterfly monogram;” inscribed in another hand is "W. Flower. Old Swan House. Chelsea." (Description of covered reverse of panel from notes in the Registrar's Object File, Freer Gallery of Art)

HISTORY Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Wickham Flower, in 1884. (Flower to Whistler, August 15 [1884]; Whistler to Flower, ca. August 1884; and Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Whistler between July 1885 and early 1886; all in GUL-WC. Reproduced as "An Orange Note — Sweet Shop,” in Walter Dowdeswell, "Whistler,” Art journal 13 (April 1887), 97. Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887) as Note en orange : Boutique de bon- bons (no. 206). Cited as "The Little Sweetstuff Shop, in the possession of Mr. Wickham Flower,” in Walter Sickert, "Whistler To-day," The Fortnightly Review (April 1892). Purchased at the Wickam Flower estate auction (London, Christie's, December 17, 1904), by Colnaghi (London art gallery). Sold by Colnaghi to Charles Lang Freer (January 4, 1905). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Mr. Whistler’s work this year is unusually varied in its apparent themes. All sorts of objects are pressed into the service of his brush — Southend pier [no. 62], the Cornish coast, a young woman dressed in a parasol and a red headgear [no. 65], a grisette reading a French novel [no. 16], a fog in Piccadilly [no. 9], a shop in Chelsea. The shop is probably the most perfect little thing of its kind that was ever wrought by an artist who has learnt how to see. It is numbered 38 in the present Exhibition. It is with- out detail, without apparent labour, without dramatic interest; but it is exquisite in colour, faultless in tone, and its well-considered mystery has, at least, the interest of suggestiveness.’’ — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884

"Mr. Whistler's fine sense of colour and his power of rapidly recording his impression of a scene, are, however,

best shown in the studies made in the streets about Cheisea. The rows of old houses, ’Sunday’ [no. 42], ’Old Chelsea Church’ [no. 44], and the little ’Sweet Shop,’ with a pile of oranges in the window, are admirable stud- ies, most harmonious in tone, produced with little appar- ent labour, but conveying an impressions of complete- ness.— Globe, May 20, 1884

"...of the oils my fancy was struck with 38, ’An Orange Note.’ It is only a 'sweet shop,’ but there is both harmony and humor of a subtle sort in it.” — "Whistles," Topical Times, May 24, 1884

"’A Sweet Shop,’ excellent in tone and wonderfully clever in the suggestion of minute detail without extravagant elaboration” — "Messrs. Dowdeswell’s Gallery,” Morning Post, May 24, 1884

"Very much better than any of ... [the other] works are three or four studies in oil made in the streets of Chelsea.

The 'Sweet Shop,’ with a pile of oranges forming the key- note of colour, is an exquisite work of its kind; and the views of 'Old Chelsea Church’ [no. 44], and of a row of houses, ’Sunday’ [no. 42], are scarcely inferior to it.

Painted with obvious ease and with little labour, they leave no sense of incompleteness, and they are remark- able besides for their perfect harmony of low-toned colour.’’ — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Graphic, May 24,

1884 91

"Perhaps the most remarkable [work] is ‘The Sweet- Shops: Orange Note,' a simple subject— a doorway, a tiny shop window piled with oranges and cakes, a shelf full of bottles containing lollipops, and three little figures; but for tone and wonderful breadth of detail, which gives us the contents even of the bottles, this lit- tle gem can hold its own with canvases a hundred times its size, and will doubtless become historical, as one of the most beautiful, refined, and powerful creations by the author of the Peacock Room.’’ — [Walter Dowdeswell],

"Mr. Whistler and His Art," Artist and lournal of Home Culture, |une 1, 1884

"The 'Sweet Shop — orange note,’ as a piece of clever paint- ing cannot be too highly praised: but to talk of it as a pow- erful creation is to ludicrously ignore the fact that it is a picture about eight inches by four of some oranges, good- ies, and bottles.” — '’Philistine,” "Mr. Whistler and His Artifices," The Artist and journal of Home Culture,

July 1, 1884

Blue and silver — The Sunny Sea

Watercolor on paper, size unknown

Whereabouts unknown

M942

Dowdeswell 39

Reference Catalogue

Sea and Mist; note in grey

Oil, support and size unknown Whereabouts unknown ymsm 284 Dowdeswell 40

A Grey Note: Village Street

Probably December 1883 or |anuary 1884 Oil on wood panel, 47/s x 8V2 in.

Hunterian Art Gallery, University of Glasgow Plate 34 YMSM 265

Possibly Dowdeswell 41, "Little Shop; grey note"

history Possibly exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Note grise : La petite Boutique (no. 167). Possibly exhibited at the International Art Exhibition (Munich 1888), as Eine graue Stimmung: Strassen-Ecke (no. 64).

In Whistler’s studio at the time of his death (1903). Bequeathed to Miss R. Birnie Philip. Given by Miss R.

Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow (1935)

‘"Little Shop — grey note’ offers a puzzle in the fore- ground. Is the white object a cat, a hen in the first pride of maternity, or a newspaper blown by the winds?’’ —

“Mr. Whistler’s Gallery,” Standard, May 20, 1884

“Some of [Whistler's] arrangements in colour, such as the 92 ‘Little Grey Note,’ or the 'Note in Blue and Opal,’ [no. 52] have all the delicate loveliness of lyrics.’’ — [Oscar Wilde], “The Butterfly’s Boswell,” Court and Society Review, April 20, 1887

Harmony in yellow and brown — Sunday

Early 1880s

Oil, support and size unknown Whereabouts unknown YMSM 248 Dowdeswell 42

“Mr. Whistler's fine sense of colour and his power of rap- idly recording his impression of a scene, are, however, best shown in the studies made in the streets about Chelsea. The rows of old houses, 'Sunday,' ’Old Chelsea Church’ [no. 44], and the little ‘Sweet Shop' [no. 38], with a pile of oranges in the window, are admirable stud- ies, most harmonious in tone, produced with little appar- ent labour, but conveying an impression of complete- ness.”— Globe, May 20, 1884

"Very much better than any of ... [the other] works are three or four studies in oil made in the streets of Chelsea. The 'Sweet Shop’ [no. 38], with a pile of oranges forming the key note of colour, is an exquisite work of its kind; and the views of ‘Old Chelsea Church’ [no. 44], and of a row of houses, ‘Sunday,’ are scarcely inferior to it.

Painted with obvious ease and with little labour, they leave no sense of incompleteness, and they are remark-

able besides for their perfect harmony of low-toned colour.’’ — "Mr. Whistler’s Exhibition," Graphic, May 24,

1884

Yellow and grey (A Note in Green)

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper,

9aAs x 67/8 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding. Original Dowdeswell label on reverse Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.165

Plate 50 M905 Dowdeswell 43

history Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Then there is ‘yellow and grey’ (No. 43), a girl in yellowish grey raiment, just touched with vivid green— she stands in front of a blazing greenish-yellow background.’’ — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884

"A good many contain figures of young girls reading, lounging, in various attitudes, their dresses and surround- ings giving the colour combination which is denominated 'Pink Note’ [no. 16] (N.B. Not a billet-doux, but a ‘note’ in the scale of colour), or 'Harmony in Violet and Amber’ [no. 19]. These figures are very slightly sketched, and their faces will certainly not bear looking close at; but they nearly all have character in pose, and show that there is good drawing underlying their shadowy simili- tude; one in particular, ‘Yellow and Grey,' (43) a girl standing before a background of yellow, is charming in attitude and in the masterly indication of the figure.—

The Builder, May 24, 1884

Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church

Probably 1884

Oil on wood panel, 3V2 x 513/i6 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 43/s in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.152

Plate 15 YMSM 305 Dowdeswell 44

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 247). Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

“Mr. Whistler's fine sense of colour and his power of rap- idly recording his impression of a scene, are, however, best shown in the studies made in the streets about Chelsea. The rows of old houses, ‘Sunday’ [no. 42], ‘Old

Chelsea Church,’ and the little ’Sweet Shop’ [no. 38], with a pile of oranges in the window, are admirable stud- ies, most harmonious in tone, produced with little appar- ent labour, but conveying an impression of complete- ness.’’— Globe, May 20, 1884

"Very much better than any of ... [the other] works are three or four studies in oil made in the streets of Chelsea. The 'Sweet Shop’ [no. 38], with a pile of oranges forming the key-note of colour, is an exquisite work of its kind; and the views of 'Old Chelsea Church,’ and of a row of houses, ‘Sunday’ [no. 42], are scarcely inferior to it.

Painted with obvious ease and with little labour, they leave no sense of incompleteness, and they are remarkable besides for their perfect harmony of low-toned colour.’’ — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition,” Graphic, May 24, 1884

"Beauty of handling and high finish will be specially noticed In the landscapes, principally Cornish, particularly 'Blue and gold— The Schooner’ [no. 32]; ‘Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church’; 'Grey and silver mist’ [no. 54]; and ‘Blue and grey — Unloading’ [no. 56]; the most brilliant in colour being a 'Note in blue and opal— the Sun Cloud' [no. 52].” — [Walter Dowdeswell], “Mr. Whistler and His Art," Artist and lournal of Home Culture, June 1, 1884

Low Tide

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel, 5Vs x gy4 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5V16 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer FI902.156

Plate 10 ymsm 280

Probably Dowdeswell 45, "Sands; blue note"

HISTORY Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

The Little Bay; blue and brown

Probably 1881

Oil, support and size unknown Whereabouts unknown ymsm 232 Dowdeswell 46

Twilight; gold and grey

Watercolor

Whereabouts unknown M917

Dowdeswell 47 (see Dowdeswell 55)

Blue and opal — Herring Fleet

Probably 1883 or 1884 Oil on wood, 47/s x 8V4 in Whereabouts unknown

YMSM 273 Dowdeswell 48

"What a placid charm in that delicate, ghostly vision of the 'Herring Fleet' (48). Poetical, we should desire to call it, only that to be poetical is to be literary." — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr. Whistler's Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray,” Academy, May 24, 1884

Reproduced from a photograph in Young, Paintings of lames McNeill Whistler, plate 185

Amsterdam in Winter

December 1882 Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card, 8 x 10 7/s in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer FI904.81

Plate 22 M877 Probably Dowdeswell 49,

"Nocturne, black and gold — Winter; Amsterdam"

HISTORY Possibly sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to E. |. Poole, in 1884 (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Whistler, between July 1885 and early 1886, GUL-WC). Through several owners, detailed in catalogue raisonnee, to John James Cowan, Edinburgh art dealer (January 26, 1903). Lent by Cowan to the annual exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Edinburgh 1904) as Amsterdam in Winter (no. 75). Sold by Cowan (through William Marchant and Co., London dealers) to Charles Lang Freer (June 13, 1904). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"There was one picture which really frightened me. It is called a ‘nocturne in black and gold — Winter: Amsterdam.' An awful thing is rising out of space on the left, the sort of genius which came out of the stone bot- tle in the Arabian Nights, and the inhabitants are flying terror-stricken in all directions." — Life (?), May 22, 1884

Blue and silver— The Islands, Venice

1880

Chalk and pastel on brown paper,

39/i6 x 11V16 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1905.215

Plate 1 M822 Dowdeswell 50

history Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to W. Baptiste Scoones in 1884 (Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Whistler, between July 1885 and early 1886, GUL-WC). Lent by Scoones to Whistler Memorial Exhibition (London 1905) as “The Isles of Venice" (no. 92). Sold by Scoones (through William Marchant and Co., London dealers), to Charles Lang Freer (July 28, 1905). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"A delightful Venetian pastel, as charming as any that Mr. Whistler exhibited some years ago is (50) 'Blue and Silver, the Isles, Venice.'" — "Mr. Whistler's Gallery, " Standard, May 20, 1884

"A pastel sketch 'Blue and Silver— The Islands, Venice’

(50) is another fine piece of luscious colour " — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

Red and pink — La Petite Mephisto

Probably 1884

Oil on wood panel, 10 x 8 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.147

Plate 36 ymsm 255 Dowdeswell 51

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884, as no. 238). Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Note en rouge: La petite Mephisto (no. 164). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Then there was a Lifeboat (54), and a Sea and Mist (40), and a queer thing in red and pink, 'La Petite Mephisto’ (51) a sulky diavoletta of a girl [boudling] in a boudoir— I often wondered what a boudoir was for; its definition is now obvious.” — "Whistles,” Topical Times, May 24, 1884

"With 'La Petite Mephisto' (51) we are back again among triumphant boldness and dash." — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr Whistler's Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray," Academy May 24, 1884

Note in blue and opal — The Sun Cloud

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel, 47/s x 8V2 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer FI904.314

Plate 13 YMSM 271 Dowdeswell 52

Inscribed on reverse of panel (covered by wooden backing added in 1938), in Whistler’s writing, "No. 52 Catalogue 'Notes, Harmonies, Nocturnes' 1884. The Sun Cloud,

Note in blue and opal. J. McN. Whistler”, inscribed in another hand, "W. Flower. Old Swan House. Chelsea ” (Description of covered reverse of panel from notes in the Registrar's Object File, Freer Gallery of Art).

HISTORY Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Wickham Flower (August 1884). (Flower to Whistler,

August 15, [1884]; Whistler to Flower, ca. August 1884; and Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Whistler, between July 1885 and early 1886; all in GUL-WC). Purchased at the Wickam Flower estate auction (London, Christie’s, December 17, 1904) by Colnaghi (London art gallery).

Sold by Colnaghi to Charles Lang Freer (January 4,

1905). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Excellent also in colour and keeping is the low-toned study of a green meadow with a row of cottages behind; but why does Mr. Whistler call it 'The Sun Cloud’? There is no suggestion of sunshine on the cloud or any part of the work." — Globe, May 20, 1884

"Beauty of handling and high finish will be specially noticed in the landscapes, principally Cornish, particularly ’Blue and gold— The Schooner’ [no. 32]; ’Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church’ [no. 44] ; ‘Grey and silver mist' [no. 54]; and 'Blue and grey — Unloading' [no,

56]; the most brilliant in colour being a 'Note in blue and opal— the Sun Cloud.'"— [Walter Dowdeswell], "Mr.

Whistler and His Art,” Artist and lournal of Home Culture, 93 June 1, 1884

"Some of [Whistler’s] arrangements in colour, such as the 'Little Grey Note' [no. 41], or the 'Note in Blue and Opal,' have all the delicate loveliness of lyrics." — [Oscar Wilde],

"The Butterfly's Boswell," Court and Society Review, April 20, 1887

Nocturne; black and red — Back Canal, Holland

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper,

85/b x 1178 in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.159

Plate 21 M946 Dowdeswell 53

HISTORY Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884), as Nocturne, black and red— Grand Canal, Holland (no. 237). Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1,

1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3,

1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

Grey and silver Mist — Life Boat

Probably December 1883 or January 1884 Oil on wood panel, 47/s x 8V2 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Reference Catalogue

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1914.1

Plate 11 ymsm 287 Dowdeswell 54

Inscribed on the exhibition label on the back of the frame (removed ca. 1923), in Whistler's handwriting, "Gris et Argent— Le Bateau de Sauvetage. (signed) J. McNeill Whistler, 21 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London," (Registrar's Object File, Freer Gallery of Art).

history Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884) as Grey and silver Mist— Life Boat (no. 246). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Gris et argent: Mer et Pluie. Batteau de sauvetage (no. 199). Exhibited at the International Art Exhibition (Munich

1888) , as Grau und silber (no. 60). Exhibited in “Notes — Harmonies — Nocturnes" (New York: Wunderlich Gallery,

1889) as A Grey Note: the Life Boat (no. 29). Exhibited at Exposition General des Beaux Arts (Brussels 1890) as Le Bateau de sauvetage (no. 843). Sold, probably by Whistler, to Otto Goldschmidt (by November 1892). After Goldschmidt's death, sold to New York art gallery Knoedler (November 1913). Sold by Knoedler to Charles Lang Freer (|anuary 1914). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

“Beauty of handling and high finish will be specially noticed in the landscapes, principally Cornish, particularly 94 ‘Blue and gold— The Schooner’ [no. 32]; ’Harmony in

brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church’ [no. 44]; 'Grey and silver mist'; and ‘Blue and grey — Unloading' [no. 56]; the most brilliant in colour being a ‘Note in blue and opal— the Sun Cloud’ [no. 52] " — [Walter Dowdeswell], "Mr. Whistler and His Art," Artist and journal of Home Culture, |une 1, 1884

Sunrise; gold and grey

Probably December 1883 or lanuary 1884 Watercolor on white wove paper,

67/s x 4ls/ie in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 59/i6 i n . molding National Gallery of Ireland Plate 18 M917

Probably Dowdeswell 55, "Sunrise; gold and grey;" or, possibly, Dowdeswell 47, "Twilight; gold and grey"

history Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884), as Sunrise— gold and grey (no. 231); or, less probably, as Twilight; gold and grey (no. 55). Acting as Whistler's agent, the organizer of the Dublin exhibi- tion, William Booth Pearsall, sold this painting and Nocturne in grey and gold— Piccadilly (Dowdeswell no. 9) to lonathan Hogg. (Whistler to William Booth Pearsall, between December 19 and 26, 1884, LC-PC, box C, folder 8). Bequeathed by lonathan Hogg to the National Gallery of Ireland in July 1930.

Blue and grey— Unloading

Probably December 1883 or lanuary 1884 Oil on wood panel, 3 VS x sy/s in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 43/ in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer FI902.150

Plate 14 ymsm 296 Dowdeswell 56

HISTORY Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Bleu et argent: Le Debarquement (no. 171). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Beauty of handling and high finish will be specially noticed in the landscapes, principally Cornish, particularly ‘Blue and gold— The Schooner' [no. 32]; ‘Harmony in brown and gold — Old Chelsea Church’ [no. 44]; ‘Grey and silver mist' [no. 54]: and ‘Blue and grey — Unloading’; the most brilliant in colour being a ’Note in blue and opal— the Sun Cloud’ [no. 52]." — [Walter Dowdeswell], “Mr. Whistler and His Art," Artist and journal of Home Culture, |une 1, 1884

Note in violet and flesh colour

Pastel

Whereabouts unknown M956

Dowdeswell 57

Nocturne; black and gold — No. 6, Rag Shop, Chelsea

ca. 1878

Oil on canvas, 14V2 x 20 in.

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Plate 35 YMSM 204 Dowdeswell 58

history Sold by Whistler to Edinburgh art dealer |ohn lames Cowan in lanuary 1899. Exhibited by Cowan at International Society of Sculptors, Painters, and Gravers Exhibition (London 1899) as Nocturne in Brown and Gold— Chelsea Rags (no. 134). Exhibited by Cowan at the Whistler Memorial Exhibition (London 1905) as Nocturne — Chelsea Rags (no. 90). Sold at Cowan estate sale, (London, Christie's, July 2, 1926). By descent through several art dealers, described in catalogue raison- nee, to Grenville L. Winthrop (1930). Bequeathed by Winthrop to Fogg Art Museum in 1943.

"Mr. Whistler does but little justice to his sitters, or he must be singularly unfortunate in his models. Surely such long-legged children, such elephantine-footed females were never seen before. Their costumes seem to have been purchased, too, at that Rag shop in Chelsea, a pic- ture of which, taken seemingly in the middle of the night, Mr. Whistler obligingly christens a Nocturne in black and

gold.’’ — "Notes — Harmonies — Nocturnes,” Sunday Times, May 18, 1884

Black and Emerald — Coal Mine

Probably December 1883 or lanuary 1884 Oil on wood panel, 37/i6 x 57/s in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 4 Vs in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.153

Plate 6 ymsm 302 Dowdeswell 59

history Exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884), as Black and Emerald— Coal Mine (no. 248). Sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Vert et noir: La Mine abandonnee (no.

174). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919

The Little Alley; grey

Oil, support and size unknown Whereabouts unknown ymsm 291 Dowdeswell 60

Red and black

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on brown paper, 93/e x 514 in.

Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Plate 49 M934 Dowdeswell 61

"In looking at the figure subjects one gets caught in a dilemma; the faces are often very expressive, but being small must be examined at a distance of a very few feet. At this range, the rest of the picture, painted in a slash- ing, dashing style, is an unintelligible, amorphous mass. When you retire some yards the picture shapes itself: it may be compared to one of those pictures drawn for chil- dren to use with a distorting mirror, which, to the naked eye, seems shapeless, but when seen in the mirror look all right: distance in our case acting as the mirror. At the distance required for general effect you cannot see what the face is like: so you must sacrifice face for general effect, or vice versa. 'Bravura in Brown’ [no. 66] and ‘Red and Black’ shew this strongly.” — “Philistine," "Mr. Whistler and His Artifices," The Artist and journal of Home Culture, July 1, 1884

Grey and silver — Pier, Southend

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card,

6V4 x 9n/ic in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 5V16 in. wide molding. Original Dowdeswell label on reverse Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.169

Plate 26 M890 Dowdeswell 62

HISTORY Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

"Mr. Whistler's work this year is unusually varied in its apparent themes. All sorts of objects are pressed into the service of his brush — Southend pier [no. 62], the Cornish coast, a young woman dressed in a parasol and a red headgear [no. 65], a grisette reading a French novel [no. 16], a fog in Piccadilly [no. 9], a shop in Chelsea [no. 38]." — "Mr. Whistler’s Exhibition," Standard, May 19,

1884

Village Shops, Chelsea

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on off-white paper, laid down on card, 5 x 8V2 in.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Plate 30 M950 Possibly Dowdeswell 63,

"Old Shop, Chelsea; pink and grey” (M951)

"A particularly pleasing effect is produced by a delicate lit- tle sketch of an old shop in Chelsea, in which there is a good deal of pink, with the paper left white in the back- ground and foreground, and a broad, flat frame of buff silver.” — The Nation, June 26, 1884

Note en rouge: L’Eventail

Probably 1884

Oil on wood, 37/t x 5% in.

Period Dowdeswell Gallery frame, 4% in. wide molding Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C,

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1913.91 Plate 37 YMSM 256

Possibly Dowdeswell 64, "Caprice in red" (YMSM 257)

HISTORY Possibly exhibited at the Dublin Sketching Club (December 1884), as Caprice in red (no. 249). Exhibited at the International Exposition of Painting and Sculpture (Paris: May 1887), as Note en rouge L'Eventail (no. 170). Lent by H. Cust to the Whistler Memorial Exhibition (Paris, 1905) as The Little Red Note (no. 54). Sold by H. Cust to Dr. Hogarth, Oxford (probably in 1913). Sold by Dr. Hogarth to Charles Lang Freer (December 1913). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

Parasol; red note

Pastel on brown paper, ll’/t x 4% in.

Whereabouts unknown M957

Dowdeswell 65

Reproduced from La Revue Independent de Litterature et d ' Art, nouvelle serie, tome 1 (1886). L'edition de luxe contient, en double triage, sur japon et chine, quatre etudes de lames M R. Whistler [sic]

"Mr. Whistler's work this year is unusually varied in its apparent themes. All sorts of objects are pressed into the service of his brush — Southend pier [no. 62], the Cornish coast, a young woman dressed in a parasol and a red headgear, a grisette reading a French novel [no. 16], a fog in Piccadilly [no. 9], a shop in Chelsea [no. 38] .” — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition," Standard, May 19, 1884

"In [other works], the artist’s love of the bizarre and his perversity are evident; in the amazingly ill-drawn nude figure, 'The Parasol,’ for instance, and in the inchoate adumbration of a group called 'Note in Pink and Purple’ [no. 27]." — "Mr. Whistler's Exhibition,” Graphic, May 24, 1884

"Is there much suggestion of the real figure in the young woman dressed in a parasol and a red head-gear (65)? It appears not a fortunate transcript, but an imperfect and graceless recollection” — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr Whistler's Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray," Academy, May 24, 1884

”1 don’t admire the young lady who considers a parasol full dress costume (65), she is hardly classical." — Kensington News, May 29, 1884

"I have not space to speak in detail of any more of the works. In most cases the colouring is beautiful, though sometimes the relation between the colours is so subtle as to produce a monotonous effect; the drawing is exe- crable; see, for instance, a "Parasol — red note,” in which the right leg is much longer than the left; the posing is clever, and the painting slipshod but effective." — "Philistine," "Mr, Whistler and His Artifices,” The Artist and journal of Home Culture, july 1, 1884

Bravura in brown

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream wove paper,

89/i6 x 615/i6 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F1902.167

Plate 52 M928

Possibly Dowdeswell 66, "Bravura in brown”

HISTORY Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

”‘A Bravura,’ a subtle arrangement of colours in warm brown and grey. — "Messrs. Dowdeswell's Gallery,"

Morning Post, May 24, 1884

"The spirit and fire of the 'Bravura in Brown’ — an ’acci- dent of alliteration,’ Mr. Whistler, but how serviceable, is it not?— are not for a moment to be gainsaid.” — Frederic Wedmore, "Mr. Whistler’s Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray," Academy, May 24, 1884

"In looking at the figure subjects one gets caught in a dilemma; the faces are often very expressive, but being small must be examined at a distance of a very few feet.

At this range, the rest of the picture, painted in a slash- ing, dashing style, is an unintelligible, amorphous mass.

When you retire some yards the picture shapes itself: it may be compared to one of those pictures drawn for chil- dren to use with a distorting mirror, which, to the naked eye, seems shapeless, but when seen in the mirror look all right: distance in our case acting as the mirror. At the distance required for general effect you cannot see what the face is like: so you must sacrifice face for general effect, or vice versa. 'Bravura in Brown’ and ‘Red and Black’ [no, 61] shew this strongly.” — "Philistine," "Mr. 95 Whistler and His Artifices," The Artist and journal of Home Culture, July 1, 1884

"After the 'Scherzo in Blue' [no. 31], it seems natural to come across 'Variations in Violet’ [no. 30] in the form of a clever flower study and a 'Bravura in Brown’ in water colour." — "Art Notes,” Liverpool Mercury, july 3, 1884

Opal Beach

1883 or 1884

Watercolor on cream paper, laid down on card, 615/i6 x gis/i6 in.

Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Gift of Charles Lang Freer F902.170

Plate 25 M886 Dowdeswell 67

HISTORY Probably sold by Dowdeswell and Dowdeswells to Henry Studdy Theobald (July 1, 1885). Sold by Theobald to Charles Lang Freer (June 3, 1902). Bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art in 1919.

Reference Catalogue

Abbreviations

AAA

Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution

FAS

Fine Art Society, London

FGAA-FP

Freer Gallery of Art Archives, Charles Lang FreerPapers

GUL-WC

Glasgow University Library, Whistler Collection

LC-PC

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., J. & E. R. Pennell Collection

LC-RC

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Rosenwald Collection

M

MacDonald, Margaret ?. James McNeill Whistler, Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolours, a Catalogue Raisonne, New Flaven, CT and London, Yale University Press, 1995

PCB

Press-Cutting Books, Whistler Collection, Glasgow University Library

YMSM

Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F, MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles. The Paintings of lames McNeill Whistler, 2 vols., New Haven, CTand London, Yale University Press, 1980

Notes

Mr. Whistler’s Gallery

1. On the history of art exhibition design, see Carol Duncan and Allan Wallach, 'The Universal Survey Museum", Art History 3 (1980), 447-69; and Carol Duncan, Civilizing Rituals: Inside Public Art Museums (London and New York: Routledge, 1995), 7-20. For the development of twentieth-century modernist exhibition design, see Brian O'Doherty, Inside the White Cube: The Ideology of the Gallery Space (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986); and Mary Anne Staniszewski, The Power of Display: A History of Exhibition Installations at the Museum of Modern Art (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1998). On changes in exhibition lighting in the nine-

teenth and twentieth centuries, see Andreas Bluhm and Louise Lippincott, Light!: The Industrial Age 1750-1900, Art and Science, Technology and Science (New York: Thames and Hudson, 2001).

2. Wildenstein and Company, One Hundred Years of Impressionism: A Tribute to Durand-Ruel (New York: Wildenstein and Company, 1970); |eremy Maas, Gambart: Prince of the Victorian Art World (London: Barrie &

Jenkins, 1975), 15-21; and Colleen Denney, "The Grosvenor Gallery as Palace of Art: An Exhibition Model," in Susan P. Casteras and Colleen Denney, eds., The Grosvenor Gallery, A Palace of Art in Victorian England (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1996), 11-15.

3. For exhibition practices at the Academie des Beaux- Arts, see Elizabeth Gilmore Holt, ed., The Art of All Nations: 1850-73: The Emerging Role of Exhibitions and Critics (Princeton; Princeton University Press, 1982) and Albert Boime, The Academy and French Painting in the Nineteenth Century (London: Phaidon, 1971). For exhibi- tion practices at the Royal Academy, see David H. Solkin, ed. Art on the Line: The Royal Academy Exhibitions at Somerset House, 1780-1836 (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2001).

4. lames Jackson Jarves, "Art of the Whistler Sort," New York Times, January 12, 1879, 10. In his review, Jarves complained about the installation of a Whistler nocturne that he apparently saw at the Grosvenor Gallery in either 1877 or 1878.

5 For Whistler’s development of the nocturne motif, see especially John Siewert, "Whistler’s Nocturnes and the Aesthetic Subject," (Ph.D. diss., University of Michigan, 1994), 57-6o; and Robin Spencer, "Whistler, Swinburne, and art for art’s Sake," in After the Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Aestheticism in Victorian England, ed. Elizabeth Prettejohn (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1999), 72-75. The Dudley Gallery was a non-profit artists’ cooperative.

6 Although Whistler did not begin to rely on private gal- leries as the main mechanism for promoting his work until the 1870s, he had used them from the beginning of his career. He sent etchings to a print gallery that was operated by the etcher Achille-Louis Martinet in Paris (1861, 1862, and 1863), showed The White Girl at Morgan's Berners Street Gallery in London in July 1862 (after it had been rejected by the Royal Academy), and displayed Purple and Rose: The Lange Leizen of the Six Marks and Crepuscule in Flesh Colour and Green: Valparaiso at Ernest Gambart’s French Gallery in London in 1866 and 1867. During the 1870s and 1880s Whistler participated in group exhibitions at several London gal- leries including the artist-run Dudley Gallery (in 1871, 1872, 1873, and 1875), Paul Durand-Ruel's Society of French Artists (in 1872, 1873, 1875, and 1876), Sir Coutts Lindsay's Grosvenor Gallery (in 1877, 1878, 1879, 1881, 1882, 1883, and 1884), and at Galerie Georges Petit in Paris (in 1883 and 1887). Exhibition dates are from Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin

Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of lames McNeill Whistler (New Haven: Yale University Press,

1980), 1, xliii-lv, hereafter cited as YMSM. Genevieve Lacambre, "Whistler and France," in Richard Dormentand Margaret F. MacDonald, lames McNeill Whistler (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1995), 43, explains that the Society of French Artists was managed by Charles Deschamps but owned by Paul Durand-Ruel, who tem- porarily relocated to London during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-71).

7. For more details about Durand-Ruel, see Wildenstein , One Hundred Years of Impressionism.

8. According to Lacambre, "Whistler and France," 44, one of the unidentified paintings was titled "Harmony in Grey." This unidentified painting may well have been the Freer’s Symphony in Grey: Early Morning, Thames (YMSM 98), which was titled "Harmony in Grey" when it was exhibited at Durand-Ruel's Society of French Artists in London in November 1872.

9. Ernest Chesneau, "Le laponisme dans les arts,” Musee Universel 2 (1873), 214-17, quoted and translated in Lacambre, "Whistler and France," 44. The fact that Whistler insisted on labeling the paintings probably means that Durand-Ruel did not publish a catalogue. In

a January 18, 1873 letter to the private dealer George Lucas, Whistler explained that the paintings at Durand- Ruel "are not merely canvasses having interest in them- selves alone, but are intended to indicate slightly to 'those whom it may concern’ something of my theory in art— The science of color and ‘picture pattern' as I have worked it out for myself during these years." Whistler’s letter to Lucas is reprinted in Nigel Thorp, ed., Whistler on Art: Selected Letters and Writings of lames McNeill Whistler (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1994), 47-49. Whistler's friend, Theodore Duret, coined the word "avant-garde" in his 1885 study of con- temporary art and music, Critique d'avant-garde (Paris: G. Charpentier, 1885), which includes a chapter on Whistler.

10. Like other leading French dealers, Durand-Ruel resisted spending money on special designs for temporary installations. After hearing of Whistler's 1883 Arrangement in White & Yellow exhibition in London, the painter Camille Pissarro wrote to his son Lucien: "How I regret not to have seen the Whistler show: I would have liked to have been there as much for the fine dry-points as for the setting, which for Whistler has so much impor- tance; he is even a bit too pretentious for me, aside from this I should say that for the room white and yellow is a charming combination. The fact is that we ourselves made the first experiments with colours: the room in which I showed was lilac, bordered with canary yellow. But we poor little rejected painters lack the means to carry out our concepts of decoration. As for urging Durand-Ruel to hold an exhibition in a hall decorated by us, it would, I think, be wasted breath. You saw how I fought with him for white frames, and finally I had to abandon the idea. No! Ido not think that Durand can be won over." This letter is in, John Rewald, ed., Camille

Pissarro, Letters to his Son Lucien, (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1943), 22-23.

11. Robin Spencer, "Whistler’s First One-Man Exhibition Reconstructed," in Gabriel P. Weisberg and laurinda S. Dixon, eds., The Documented Image: Visions in Art History, (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1987), 27-48.

12. Spencer, "Whistler’s First One-Man Exhibition,"

41-44. Whistler could not have sold many of the paint- ings in the 1874 exhibition since most of the major ones were borrowed from his patrons, but he may have sold one or more of the nocturnes. For the evidence of this possible sale, see YMSM, 71, entry 117.

13. For more information on the Grosvenor Gallery, see Denny, The Grosvenor Gallery ; Christopher Newall, The Grosvenor Gallery Exhibitions: Change and Continuity in the Victorian Art World (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), and Linda Merrill, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in Whistler v Ruskin (Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press in association with the Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1992), 9-18.

14. For the December 1880 exhibition of Whistler's Venice etchings, see especially, Katharine A. Lochnan, The Etchings of lames McNeill Whistler (New Haven: Published in association with the Art Gallery of Ontario by the Yale University Press, 1984), 211-16; Alastair Grieve, Whistler’s Venice (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000), 189-90; and Margaret F. MacDonald, Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice (Aldershot, Hampshire, England: Lund Humphries, 2001), 88-98.

15. Whistler to Marcus B. Huish, n.d. (ca. |anuary 21-26, 1880). See also, Whistler to Helen (Nellie] Whistler, n.d. (ca. 20 February-March 1880): the pastels "are, and remain even in my present depression, lovely! just think fifty — complete beauties! — and something so new in Art that every body's mouth will I feel pretty soon water— Tissot I daresay will try his hand at once — and others too." These letters are transcribed in MacDonald, Palaces in the Night, 143-44 and 146. The French painter james Tissot (1836-1902). For Whistler as a pastelist, see Robert H. Getscher, lames Abbott McNeill Whistler, Pastels (New York: George Braziller, 1991) For the history of pastels, see Genevieve Monnier, Pastels From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Century (New York: SKI RA/Rizzoli , 1984); Anne F. Maheux, Degas Pastels (Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1988); Dianne H. Pilgrim, "The Revival of Pastels in Nineteenth-Century America: The Society of Painters in Pastel,” American Art I ournal 10 (November 1978); and Marjorie Shelley, "American Pastels of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: Materials and Techniques," in American Pastels in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989).

16. Deanna Marohn Bendix, Diabolical Designs Paintings, Interiors, and Exhibitions of lames McNeill Whistler (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1995), 217-33. The most useful period reviews are E. W. Godwin, "Mr. Whistler's Venice Pastels," British Architect and

Northern Engineer A (4 February 1881), PCB 4, p. 37; Country Gentleman, 5 February 1881, PCB 4, p. 47; and "Venice Pastels," The Observer, 6 February 1881, PCB 4, p. 45, reprinted in Robin Spencer, ed., Whistler: A Retrospective (New York: Hugh Lauter Levin, 1989),

176-77.

17. For an example of Whistler's standard late 1870s frames, see the frame for Whistler’s Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of the Painter (ca. 1872; Detroit Institute of the Arts), reproduced in Eli Wilner, American Antique Frames: Rediscovering a Lost Art (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2000), 41. See also Whistler's letter to Helen [Nellie] Whistler, n.d. [20 February/March 1880], in which he exclaims, "Huish is preparing fifty frames! For the pas- tels.” (Transcribed in MacDonald, Palaces in the Night, 146.) Two of the original 1881 Venice pastel exhibition frames are at the Freer Gallery of Art (Figo5.i23b and Fig05.l24b), both carry Grau’s label on