Object details
Accession number
S.G.Sar.1.1.2.4
Primary Creator
James McNeill Whistler
(Lowell, Massachusetts, 1834 - 1903, London, England)
Full title
Second Venice Set: Bead Stringers
Creation Date
1880
State
XI/XI
Provenance
Purchased by Messrs Dowdeswell and Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau (1840-1892), print dealer and collector, from the artist by 25 February 1887 for £0.4.4.
Purchased by the art dealers H. Wunderlich & Co., New York from Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau for £52.10.0 in May 1888 through the print dealer Gustave Lauser (b. 1841), stock no. 14359. (as part of an album of "The Second Venice Set")
Purchased by Isabella Stewart Gardner from H. Wunderlich & Co., New York on 11 April 1890 for $750. (as part of "Whistler's two sets of Venice etchings")
Marks
Signed in etching: Whistler's butterfly signature
Inscribed (on copper plate): "37"
Signed in pencil (on tab, recto): Whistler's butterfly signature
Inscribed in pencil (on tab, recto): "imp" [hand of Whistler]
Inscribed in graphite (on tab, verso): "AWT" [collector's mark, Alphonse Wyatt Thibaudeau]
Dimensions
22.7 x 15.2 cm (8 15/16 x 6 in.)
Display Media
Etching and drypoint printed on laid 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
Short Gallery
Bibliography
The Fine Art Society. Mr. Whistler's Etchings (London, 1883), no. 5.
Frederick Wedmore. Whistler's Etchings: a Study and a Catalogue (London, 1886), p. 72, no. 164.
James McNeill Whistler. The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (London, 1890), p. 94.
Howard Mansfield. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Etchings and Dry-Points of James Abbott McNeill Whistler (Chicago, 1909), pp. 132-34, no. 195.
Edward G. Kennedy. The Etched Work of Whistler (New York, 1910), pp. 82-83, no. 198.
P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. An Exhibition of Etchings, Dry Points & Lithographs by James McNeill Whistler (London, 16 November - 10 December 1971). p. 30, no. 100.
From Realism to Symbolism: Whistler and His World. Exh. cat. (New York: Wildenstein; Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1971), pp. 50-51, no. 32, pl. 47.
Katharine A. Lochnan. The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler. Exh. cat. (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1984; Toronto: The Art Gallery of Ontario, 1985), pp. 182, 191, 232, 260, 281, no. 223.
Margaret F. MacDonald. James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours, a Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 1995), pp. 294-95, no. 788.
Alastair Grieve. Whistler's Venice (New Haven, 2000), pp. 132, 192.
Margaret F. MacDonald. Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice (Berkeley, 2001), pp. 59, 61, 120, 124, pl. 71.
Margaret F. MacDonald et al. Whistler, Women & Fashion. Exh. cat. (New York: The Frick Collection, 2003), p. 213, fig. 213.
Margaret F. MacDonald et al. "Bead Stringers." James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné (University of Glasgow, 2012), no. 235, accessed 24 May 2016. http://etchings.arts.gla.ac.uk/catalogue/
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.