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Oil painting of woman in yellow lying on white couch

A light-skinned woman lies on a white couch with her head at the right end. She wears a long yellow robe and a hat with white floral decoration near the left ear. Behind her is a large, amorphous teal shape, perhaps a blanket, with bright orange dots. To the right of this is a smaller black shape. The area around the couch is beige. This image is painted on a wooden panel stained dark brown at the edges.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.169
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
The Little White Sofa
Other Titles
Former Title: Le Petit Sopha Blanc
Former Title: Girl on a White Sofa
Former Title: Girl in Yellow Lying on a White Couch
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1883-1884
Places
Creation Place: North America, United States
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/230331

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on wood panel
Dimensions
11.5 x 18.3 cm (4 1/2 x 7 3/16 in.)
framed: 10.5 x 13.3 x 1.8 cm (4 1/8 x 5 3/16 x 11/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.r.: Butterfly monogram
  • inscription: verso, left side of frame, impressed: GRIEVE CO / HAND CARVED / NEW YORK & LONDON
  • label: verso, center of panel, printed text, under Paris exhibition label: ART LOAN EXHIBITION, / DUBLIN, 1899. [the rest of the label is covered]
  • label: verso, center of panel, printed text, over Dublin exhibition label: PALAIS DE L'ECOLE DES BEAUX ARTS. / EXPOSITION DES ŒUVRES DE / JAMES McNEILL WHISTLER. / Paris, Mai, 1801 / Description [handwritten, graphite:] Peinture / Le petit sofa blanc

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
A. Arnold Hannay, by 1899, through 1905. William B. Paterson, London, by 1921. [Scott and Fowles, New York], sold; to Hunt Henderson, New Orleans, 1922, bequest to; Tulane University, 1939, sold [through Macdonald Gallery, New York]; to Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, April 1941, bequest; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.169
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • L'oeuvre de James MacNeill Whistler, exh. cat., Ecole des Beaux-Arts (Paris, France, 1905), no. 53
  • New Gallery, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (London, England, 1905), no. 98, p. 112
  • Elisabeth Luther Cary, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study with a Tentative List of the Artist's Work, Moffat, Yard and Company (New York, 1907), no. 212, p. 191
  • Bernhard Sickert, Whistler, Duckworth & Co. (London, England, 1908), no. 146, p. 170
  • Andrew McLaren Young and Margaret F. MacDonald, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, Yale University Press (New Haven, 1980), vol. I, no. 258, p. 141; vol. II, plate 176
  • David Park Curry, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, exh. cat., Freer Gallery of Art / W.W. Norton & Co. (New York and Washington, DC, 1984), reproduced b/w fig. 50.1, p. 145
  • 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. 424, cat. no. 450, reproduced in color

Exhibition History

  • Art Loan Exhibition, Unknown Venue, 01/01/1899 - 12/31/1899
  • Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler: First President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, London, 02/22/1905 - 04/15/1905
  • L'Oeuvre de James McNeill Whistler, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 05/01/1905 - 06/30/1905
  • Loan Collection of Works by James McNeill Whistler, National Gallery, London, 07/01/1912 - 10/01/1912
  • Loan Exhibition of Paintings and Prints by James McNeill Whistler, courtesy of the Henderson Family of New Orleans, Louisiana State University Museum of Art, Baton Rouge, 04/08/1937 - 04/23/1937
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • 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

Related Works

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