Arrangement in Grey: Portrait of Master Stephen Manuel

Maker(s)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Historical period(s)
ca. 1885
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
H x W: 50.8 x 38.1 cm (20 x 15 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1908.178a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Painting
Type

Oil painting

Keywords
portrait, United States
Provenance

To 1908
Stephen Manuel (1880-1954), English, to 1908 [1]

From 1908 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Stephen Manuel in November 1908 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Whistler List, Purchases Since Making up the Smithsonian Inventory, pg. 10, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. According to F1908.178a-b, Label Text Field, note 1, "Whistler and Manuel were distant relations - Whistler's brother was married to the boy's aunt."

[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)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Stephen Manuel (C.L. Freer source) 1880-1954

Label

Using the delicate washes of thinned paint characteristic of his mature portraits, Whistler completed this painting in two sittings. The elegant palette appealed to Freer and contemporary historians of Asian art, who "conceived of color as a flower growing out of a soil of grays." Whistler and Manuel were distant relations--Whistler's brother was married to the boy's aunt.

Published References
  • Denys Sutton. Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler. Philadelphia and New York, 1964. fig. 48.
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell, Joseph Pennell. The Life of James McNeill Whistler. 2 vols., London and Philadelphia. vol. 2: p. 196.
  • Andrew McLaren Young, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer. The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler. Studies in British Art 2 vols. New Haven, 1980. vol. 2: pl. 206.
  • Burns A. Stubbs. Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints, and Copper Plates by and Attributed to American and European Artists, Together with a List of Original Whistleriana, in the Freer Gallery of Art. vol. 1, no. 2, 2nd ed. Washington, 1967. pl. 23.
  • James McNeill Whistler in Context: Essays from the Whistler Centenary Symposium, University of Glasgow, 2003. vol. 2, 1st ed. Washington, 2008. p. 16, fig. 1.13.
  • Thomas Robert Way, G. R. Dennis. The Art of James McNeill Whistler: An Appreciation by T.R. Way and G.R. Dennis. London, 1903. p. 48.
  • David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1984. p. 145, pl. 51.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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