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Oil painting of people and buildings in front of grassy hill

This painting is dominated by a large, wide green hill that extends nearly to the top of the canvas. A house with a black roof stands at the peak of the hill. Darker green areas on the hill resemble shadows or differences in vegetation. At the base of the hill closer to the foreground is a wide plane. A low black and white structure stands on the border between them. Chickens stand all around and on top of it. To the left, an adult figure holds onto the arms of a child in a bonnet.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.170
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Ajaccio, Corsica
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1901
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230027

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
12.4 x 21.6 cm (4 7/8 x 8 1/2 in.)
frame: 28.6 x 37.8 x 4.5 cm (11 1/4 x 14 7/8 x 1 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: Butterfly monogram
  • inscription: verso, on panel, graphite: 28y[?]
  • inscription: verso, on panel, white chalk: AJACCIO
  • inscription: verso of frame, impressed: [worn off text] VE / HAND CARVED / NEW YORK & LONDON

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Hunt Henderson, New Orleans, bequest; to Tulane University, 1939, sold [through Macdonald Gallery, New York]; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, April 1941, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.170
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Denys Sutton, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolors, Phaidon Press (London, England, 1966), reproduced fig. 120, text p. 196
  • Andrew McLaren Young and Margaret F. MacDonald, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, Yale University Press (New Haven, 1980), vol. I: p. 227, no. 546; vol. II: reproduced in b/w pl. 360
  • Isabelle Enaud Lechien, Whistler et la France, Herscher (Paris, France, 1994), pp. 62-63, reproduced in color
  • Isabelle Enaud Lechien, James Whistler: Le paintre et le polémiste, ACR PocheCouleur (Paris, France, 1995), pp. 184-185, reproduced in color
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 438-39, cat. no. 465, reproduced in b&w, p. 439

Exhibition History

  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/24/2023 - 10/21/2024

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu