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Page with drawing of woman holding flowers and painting of blue dragonfly on the other

On the recto side of this page is a pastel drawing of a woman in a white dress, in profile facing left, holding a vase of flowers. She has no visible facial features, and her hair and body are similarly un-detailed. Her hair is lightly colored with bright pink and orange pigment and a line of blue that suggests a headband. The same pink pigment embellishes the torso of her dress. She holds an orange vase of bright pink and green flowers at chest level. On the verso side of the page is a simple dragonfly painted in blue gouache.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.625
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Figure with Flowers; verso: Dragonfly
Other Titles
Former Title: Draped Girl Holding Flowers
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1871-1873
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308074

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel on brown wove paper; verso: blue gouache
Dimensions
17.7 x 8.6 cm (6 15/16 x 3 3/8 in.)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Hunt Henderson, New Orleans; his bequest to Tulane University, 1939; its sale to Grenville L. Winthrop, April 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
1943.625
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. 244
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), p. 141, no. 403, recto and verso reproduced
  • 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. 401, cat. no. 430 A & B, reproduced in b&w

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