Pastel drawing of seated woman and standing child
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

A light-skinned woman sits in profile facing right. She appears to be seated on a couch, which is draped with a peach fabric. She wears a purple and green kerchief over her brown hair, along with a somewhat sheer dress with a pattern of green, blue, and purple swirls. Standing up on the couch to the right of the woman is a light-skinned, nude child who faces the viewer. The woman places her right hand on the child’s belly and smiles up at their face. There is a round object on a stick, possibly a handheld fan, to the child’s right.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.627
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Mother and Child
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1890-1893
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308040

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel on brown wove paper
Dimensions
27.4 x 18 cm (10 13/16 x 7 1/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: black and blue pastel, c.r.: butterfly monogram
  • inscription: verso, top left, red crayon: 35 [encircled]?

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Alexander Reid, by 1894; William Burrell, by 1895, until at least 1907; at auction, Christie's, London, March 1, 1929; purchased at that auction by Colnaghi; their sale to Kennedy, New York, May 4, 1929; their sale to Grenville L. Winthrop through Martin Birnbaum, November 8, 1943; 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
1943.627
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • A Collection of Paintings Representing the Glasgow School artists of Denmark, and some others, exh. cat., The Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago, IL, 1895), reproduced, no. 163
  • 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), p. 230, no. 519
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 624
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), p. 466, reproduced no. 1288
  • 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. 429-430, cat. no. 457, reproduced in b&w, p. 429

Exhibition History

  • 64th Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 12/17/1894 - 02/23/1895
  • A Collection of Paintings representing the Glasgow School, Artists of Denmark and Some Others, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 11/19/1895 - 12/22/1895
  • 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