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Sketch of dark-haired man holding a string instrument

A man stands facing the viewer. He has shiny dark hair and a thick dark mustache. He wears a suit with a cropped jacket and high-waisted fitted pants, similar to the silhouette of a matador’s costume. In his arms he holds a string instrument with curved sides. Its shape resembles a violin or viola, though he holds it like a guitar with his right hand plucking the strings. Heavy, dramatic hatching frames the man’s head and body. Whistler’s “butterfly” signature appears at bottom left. The sketch is matted with a label reading “WHISTLER.”

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.613
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Sketch of "Arrangement in Black: Portrait of Senor Pablo Sarasate"
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Study for the portrait of the violinist, Pablo de Sarasarte
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1885
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308028

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Blue ink on darkened off-white wove paper
Dimensions
15.8 x 8.8 cm (6 1/4 x 3 7/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: blue ink, center rt: butterfly monogram

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Charles Morley. Probably owned the work, per MacDonald's 1995 catalogue (see bibliography).
Gustav Nebehay, Berlin.
Grenville Lindall Winthrop, New York NY, Bequest to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.613
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Theodore Duret, Histoire de J. McN. Whistler et de son Oeuvre., Henri Floury (Paris, France, 1904), p. 113
  • New Gallery, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (London, England, 1905), p. 67, no. 182
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, J. B. Lippincott/W. Heinemann (Philadelphia, PA and London, England, 1908), vol. II, pp. 4, 63
  • Andrew McLaren Young and Margaret F. MacDonald, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, Yale University Press (New Haven, 1980), p. 155
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), p. 375, no. 998, reproduced

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