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Watercolor of woman in gray dress on black background

A light-skinned woman stands with her head facing the viewer, her body angled slightly to the right. She wears a high-collared, dark gray dress with puffed long sleeves and what appear to be buttons on the chest. Her brown hair is pinned up. She wears white drop earrings. In her right hand she holds a round object, possibly a bouquet or a bag. It is a similar shade of dark gray to her dress, but there are also areas of bluish shading. The background behind the woman is streaky dark gray-black fading to a lighter, warmer gray at the bottom.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.618
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Note in Black and Grey
Other Titles
Former Title: Standing Woman in All Black
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1883-1884
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308030

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor on white wove paper mounted overall to board
Dimensions
21.4 x 12.6 cm (8 7/16 x 4 15/16 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: watercolor, c.r.: butterfly monogram
  • inscription: verso, upper left, red pencil: WMC 73
  • inscription: verso, lower center, graphite: wove[?] / 19554

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Dowdeswell Gallery exhibition, 1886; purchased there by Mrs. Bloomfield Moore; her estate sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, May 5, 1900; Albert Rouillier, before 1904; 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
1943.618
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

  • "Notes"-"Harmonies"-"Nocturnes" (Second Series), auct. cat., Dowdeswell Gallery (London, 1886), cat. 40
  • Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels, & Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat., Copley Society (Boston, MA, 1904), cat. 104
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 244
  • Nicholas Wadley, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist Drawing, Dutton Studio Books, New York (New York, NY, 1991), p. 249, reproduced as plate 83b
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), p. 354-355, no. 931, reproduced
  • 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. 475-76, cat. 218, 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. 492-93, cat. 218, 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. 421-423, cat. no. 449, reproduced in color, p. 422

Exhibition History

  • "Notes" - "Harmonies" - "Nocturnes", Dowdeswell Gallery, London
  • Spring Exhibition, Goupil Gallery, London, 01/01/1901 - 01/01/1901
  • 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
  • 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

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