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Pastel drawing of reclining nude woman on brown paper

A light-skinned woman lies on her left side, facing the viewer. Her left arm is bent, her hand under her cheek, and her right arm is draped over her head. Her ankles are crossed, and her legs bend toward the background, with the tips of her feet cut off by the margin of the paper. The woman is pale and slender with dark hair and pink cheeks. Above her is a sheer expanse of red-orange pastel; below her is an expanse of gold pastel. Whistler’s “butterfly” signature appears in dark pastel in the upper left corner.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.607
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Nude Reclining
Other Titles
Former Title: A Nude Female Model, Reclining
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1878
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/307990

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel on brown wove paper
Dimensions
18.3 x 27.3 cm (7 3/16 x 10 3/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: u.r.: butterfly monogram

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Mrs. J.C. Denton Carlisle; her sale at auction, Christie's, London, June 17, 1927; purchased at that sale by Colnaghi; their sale to Leonard Gow, June 24, 1927; sold at Leonard Gow estate auction, Christie's, London, May 28, 1937; purchased at that sale by Colnaghi; their sale to Knoedler and Carstairs jointly, May 1940; probably their sale to Grenville L. Winthrop, April 1, 1941; his 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
1943.607
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 243
  • Nicholas Wadley, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing, Dutton Studio Books, New York (New York, NY, 1991), p. 249, reproduced plate 83
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), pp. 248 - 249, no. 684 reproduced
  • Christopher Reed, "Wrong!", Harvard Magazine (Cambridge, MA, September 2004-October 2004), vol. 107, no. 1, pp. 40-51, pp. 50-51, ill. p. 51
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., "American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950", American Art Review (April 2006), XVIII, no. 2, pp. 88-93, repr. p. 90
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., American Watercolors and Pastels 1875-1950 at the Fogg Art Museum, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2006), checklist, repr. (n.p.)
  • 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. 415, cat. no. 443, reproduced in color

Exhibition History

  • American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950, at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/08/2006 - 06/25/2006

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