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Identification and Creation

Object Number
33.2015.26
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
"What I Once Was"
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
c. 1849-51
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/353718

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Brown ink on tan wove paper
Dimensions
12 x 7.5 cm (4 3/4 x 2 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: brown ink, lower right: JW
  • inscription: brown ink, lower center: "What I once was" / The Lost Lord Act III / "Hadst thou seen me in my glory!"
  • clipping: back of frame containing 33.2015.19-27, clipping from 1904 exhibition catalogue: 170. TWENTY-TWO DRAWINGS AND SKETCHES / DONE BY MR. WHISTLER WHILE AT / SCHOOL AT POMFRET, CONN., ABOUT 1850 / Lent by Samuel Hammond, Esq.
  • label: back of frame containing 33.2015.19-27, label with red border: [stamped:] SAMUEL HAMMOND [inscribed, brown ink:] 57
  • label: back of frame containing 33.2015.19-27, label with red border: [printed:] M.F.A. / [inscribed, black ink:] S.E. 82 / MRS. SAMUEL HAMMOND

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Anonymous loan and promised gift in honor of Mason Hammond, 2015

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Anonymous loan and promised gift in honor of Mason Hammond
Accession Year
2015
Object Number
33.2015.26
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels, & Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat., Copley Society (Boston, MA, 1904), cat. no. 170
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, J. B. Lippincott/W. Heinemann (Philadelphia, PA and London, England, 1908), vol. 1, p. 28, repr.
  • Exhibition of Oils, Water-colors, Drawings and Prints by James McNeill Whistler, exh. cat., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, 1934), no. 45
  • Nancy Dorfman Pressly, "Whistler in America: An Album of Early Drawings", Metropolitan Museum Journal (1972), 5, pp. 125-154, p. 129
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), cat. no. 67, repr.

Exhibition History

  • Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels, & Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society of Boston, 02/23/1904 - 03/28/1904
  • Exhibition of Oils, Water-colors, Drawings and Prints by James McNeill Whistler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, 04/24/1934 - 05/13/1934

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