Object Details
- Label
- Whistler's early interest in nocturnal genre scenes is evidenced here. However, the candlelit space recalls nighttime interiors by numerous earlier artists, rather than suggesting anything of the unconventional nocturnes Whistler would begin to execute a few years hence. Whistler used a similar approach to light in The Music Room, an etching which is roughly contemporary with this drawing. In both the drawing and the print, brightly lit passages form flat, abstract shapes while the rest of each figure emerges as a group of scribbled or cross-hatched lines.
- Provenance
- Seymour Haden (1818-1910), London [1]
- To 1898
- H. Wunderlich & Co., New York to 1898 [2]
- From 1898 to 1919
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from H. Wunderlich & Co., through Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938), in November 1898 [3]
- From 1920
- Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]
- Notes:
- [1] See Original Whistler List, Haden Collection Drawings, pg. 2, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
- [2] See Voucher No. 20, November 1898, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
- [3] See note 2.
- [4] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.
- Collection
- Freer Gallery of Art Collection
- Exhibition History
- James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art—Whistler and Modern Life (May 11, 1984 to December 16, 1984)
- Previous custodian or owner
- Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910)
- H. Wunderlich & Co. (1874-1912) (C.L. Freer source)
- Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
- Data Source
- Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
- Date
- 1858
- Credit Line
- Gift of Charles Lang Freer
- Medium
- Pencil on off-white wove paper
- Dimensions
- H x W: 15.2 x 9.9 cm (6 x 3 7/8 in)
- Type
- Drawing
