1943.607: Nude Reclining
DrawingsA 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
-
THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.
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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