Count Robert de Montesquiou

Maker(s)
Artist: Beatrice Godwin Whistler (1857-1896)
Historical period(s)
1894
Medium
Ink on paper
Dimensions
H x W: 19.7 x 7.3 cm (7 3/4 x 2 7/8 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1904.71
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Print
Type

Lithograph

Keywords
portrait, United States
Provenance

To 1904
L. Dumont, Paris, to 1904 [1]

From 1904 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from L. Dumont in Paris in 1904 [2]

From 1920
Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Whistler List, Lithographs, pg. 28, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

[2] See note 1.

[3] 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.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

L. Dumont (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

For many years scholars and collectors believed that this lithograph was by Whistler, but recent research has convincingly suggested that it was actually drawn by Beatrix. Before their marriage Beatrix had been one of Whistler's students. She worked in a similar style, but the vigorous downstrokes in this version of the print are much more emphatic than the shorter, softer, moodier lines in Whistler's version. Whistler's lithograph includes his butterfly signature next to Montesquiou's right hand; Beatrix's does not.

Published References
  • The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler. 2 vol., Chicago and New York, 1998. vol. 1: pp. 265-266.
  • Thomas Robert Way. Whistler's Lithographs. vol. 3, no. 3. p. 305.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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