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Pastel drawing of nude seated woman looking into teacup

A nude light-skinned woman wits on a bench. She is in profile facing left with her left leg crossed over her right. She appears to have some kind of headpiece or elaborate, voluminous hairstyle on her head, decorated with small areas of red and green pigment. The woman looks down into a blue-and-white teacup she is holding. She sits atop a green-and-gold shroud, and on the bench to the right is a blue-and-white teacup and saucer. Whistler’s “butterfly” signature appears above the bench, colored with brown pastel.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.609
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
The Fortune Teller-- A Red Note
Other Titles
Former Title: Seated Nude
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1886 - 1890
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308002

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel on brown wove paper
Dimensions
27.9 x 18.4 cm (11 x 7 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: black and brown pastel, c,r: butterfly monogram
  • inscription: verso of mount, center, black crayon: No. 59 / Flesh color and Rose

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
A. A. Hannay; E. B. Patterson; his sale to Knoedler, New York; their sale to H. Y. Sanderson, April 25, 1919; Grenville L. Winthrop; 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
1943.609
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

  • Thomas R. Way, Mr. Whistler's Lithographs: The Catalogue, George Bell and Sons, Ltd. (London, England, 1896), no. 29
  • "The Literary Lounger", Sketch: A Journal of Art and Actuality (October 28, 1908), vol. 64, p. 84, reproduced, p. 84
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, J. B. Lippincott/W. Heinemann (Philadelphia, PA and London, England, 1908), pp. 206 - 207, reproduced
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 243
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), p. 404, no. 1083, reproduced
  • Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi, The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler, The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1998), reproduced in b/w p. 145, fig. 331; cf. cat. no. 33
  • 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. 428, cat. no. 455, reproduced in b&w

Exhibition History

  • 32Q: 2100 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 07/15/2024 - 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