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Pastel drawing of man in hat with sunset in background

A man in a dark coat and dark, wide-brimmed hat sits in the left foreground behind a gate or partition of some kind. He is on a dock with a body of water to his left and a post to his right. Behind him are rows of small boats. In the distant background is a silhouetted skyline shaded black and blue. The sky above is red-orange near the horizon, fading into yellow and then white at the top. The colors of the sky are reflected in the water. Whistler’s “butterfly” signature is in the bottom right corner, colored with orange pastel.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.617
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Sunset; Red and Gold--The Gondolier
Other Titles
Former Title: Riva degli Schiavoni at Sunset
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1880
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308072

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel on brown wove paper
Dimensions
19.2 x 28.5 cm (7 9/16 x 11 1/4 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: black crayon and orange pastel, l.r.: butterfly monogram
  • inscription: recto, lower right, a butterfly monogram

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Mme. Blanche Marchesi; J.P. Heseltine; his sale to Colnaghi, London, July 16, 1926; Alphonse Kann; his sale to Grenville L. Winthrop through Martin Birnbaum, December 1, 1927; 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
1943.617
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • "Art: Venice Pastels", The Observer [London] (London, England, February 6, 1881), supplement section, p. 1
  • "Mr. Whistler's Venice Pastels.", Pan (February 5, 1881)
  • "Venice in Pastel", St. James's Gazette (February 9, 1881), p. 69
  • Thomas R. Way, The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation, George Bell and Sons, Ltd. (London, England, 1903), p. 93
  • 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), no. 397, p. 216
  • Thomas R. Way, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, John Lane Co. (New York, 1912), reproduced, facing p. 52
  • Denys Sutton, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolors, Phaidon Press (London, England, 1966), no. 89, p. 193, reproduced pl. 89
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 244
  • Andrew McLaren Young and Margaret F. MacDonald, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, Yale University Press (New Haven, 1980), p. 124
  • Nicholas Wadley, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing, Dutton Studio Books, New York (New York, NY, 1991), color plate XII
  • Robert H. Getscher, James Abbott McNeill Whistler Pastels (New York, 1991), pp. 122 - 123, 181 - 182, no. 42
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), pp. 302 - 303, no. 806, reproduced in color
  • Alastair Grieve, Whistler's Venice, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 2000), fig. 213 (color), p. 165
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, exh. cat., Lund Humphries (Berkeley, CA and Los Angeles, 2001), fig. 47 (color), p. 45
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), pp. 474-75, cat. 217, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), pp. 490-91, cat. 217, ill.
  • 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. 416-419, cat. no. 445, reproduced in color, p. 417

Exhibition History

  • Venice Pastels, The Fine Art Society, London, 01/29/1881 - 04/01/1881
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • 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

Subjects and Contexts

  • Collection Highlights
  • Google Art Project

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