Blue and Rose: The Open Fan

Maker(s)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Historical period(s)
1890s
Medium
Drawing; crayon and pastel on brown paper
Dimensions
H x W: 27.8 x 17.5 cm (10 15/16 x 6 7/8 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1909.124a-b
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Drawing
Type

Drawing

Keywords
fan, United States
Provenance

To 1909
Wallis and Son, The French Gallery, London, to 1909 [1]

From 1909 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Wallis and Son, The French Gallery in 1909 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See List of Whistler Purchases since Making up the Smithsonian Inventory, pg. 12, 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)

Wallis and Son, The French Gallery (C.L. Freer source)
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919

Label

Charles Lang Freer was one of the first collectors to recognize the importance and beauty of Whistler's late nudes. Freer first met Whistler in London, in March 1890. The two got on well, and Whistler sold Freer a recent pastel nude. It was the second Whistler drawing to enter Freer's collection, and the first pastel. During the 1890s, most of the Whistler drawings and oil paintings that Freer acquired were recent work, many of them female nudes.

Published References
  • Margaret F. MacDonald. James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolours : A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, 1995. .
  • Paul Chevallier. Catalogue des tableau, pastels dessins, pointes sèches par J.Mac-Neill Whistler. Paris, 1903. p. 13, pl. 3.
  • David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1984. pp. 50, 277, pl. 280.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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