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Standing nude woman holding upside-down parasol

The image for this drawing is black-and-white. A woman stands facing away from the viewer and slightly toward the right. Her hair is up in a bun, her face looks downward, and her shoulders are a bit slouched. Her right arm is bent, her elbow resting against her hip. In her arm she holds the handle of an upside-down parasol. The parasol is significantly less detailed than the woman. Its handle is a simple dark line, and its top part is a wide oval. Whistler’s “butterfly” signature is written on the right side of the parasol.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.616
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Nude with Parasol
Other Titles
Former Title: Standing Nude with Chinese Parasol
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1872-1874
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308029

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Black and white chalk on brown wove paper
Dimensions
24.8 x 15.8 cm (9 3/4 x 6 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: c.r.: butterfly monogram

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
J.J. Cowan, Edinburgh; purchased from him by Agnew (dealers), London, June 19, 1899; their sale to Edmund Davis, June 20, 1899; Grenville L. Winthrop, New York, NY; 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
1943.616
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

  • Mortimer Menpes, Whistler as I Knew Him, Adam and Charles Black (London, 1904), p. 102, reproduced
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 244
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), pp. 161 - 162, reproduced, no. 446
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., American Watercolors and Pastels 1875-1950 at the Fogg Art Museum, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2006), checklist
  • 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. 408-410, cat. no. 436, reproduced in b&w

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