Object details
Accession number
P25e5
Primary Creator
James McNeill Whistler
(Lowell, Massachusetts, 1834 - 1903, London, England)
Full title
The Violet Note
Creation Date
1885-1886
Provenance
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from James McNeill Whistler, London for 60 guineas on 30-31 October 1886.
Marks
Signed (on the curtain, behind the figure to the right): Whistler's butterfly signature
Dimensions
26 x 18 cm (10 1/4 x 7 1/16 in.)
Display Media
Chalk and pastel on brown paper
Web Commentary
Isabella Stewart Gardner kept meticulous records of many of her acquisitions. In keeping with this legacy, object information is continually being reviewed, updated, and enriched in order to give greater access to the collection.
Permanent Gallery Location
Veronese Room
Bibliography
Art Exhibition: Mrs. John L. Gardner, 152 Beacon St., Boston. Exh. cat. (Boston, 1899), p. 8, no. 22.
Catalogue. Fenway Court. (Boston, 1903), p. 18.
Morris Carter. Isabella Stewart Gardner and Fenway Court (Boston, 1925; Reprint, Boston, 1972), p. 103.
Philip Hendy. Catalogue of Exhibited Paintings and Drawings (Boston, 1931), p. 419.
Gilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 201.
“Notes, Records, Comments.” Gardner Museum Calendar of Events 6, no. 19 (6 Jan. 1963), p. 1. (excerpting Morris Carter, pp. 103-05)
Philip Hendy. European and American Paintings in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 1974), pp. 292-93, ill.
Deborah Gribbon. "Mrs. Gardner's Modern Art" in James Thomas Herbert Baily (ed.). The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors, "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum" (London, 1978), p. 15, fig. E.
Deborah Gribbon. "Whistler's Sketch of an Unfinished Symphony." Fenway Court (1980), p. 26.
Margaret MacDonald. James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raissonné (London, 1995), pp. 403-04, no. 1081. (as 1885-1886)
Alan Chong et al. (eds.) Eye of the Beholder: Masterpieces from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, 2003), p. 201, ill. (as 1885-1886)
Rights and reproductions
The use of images, text, and all other media found on this website is limited. Please review Rights and Reproductions for details.