Gambling Salon at Baden-Baden

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• Label

  Using a free drawing technique that recalls Gavarni's handling of crowd scenes, Whistler here depicts one of Baden Baden's primary tourist attractions. The allure of the city's gambling tables had been described in Thackeray's Vanity Fair, and Whistler adopted an illustrational mode. Always interested in formal porperties, however, Whistler reinforced his subject matter by centering the roulette wheel and calling attention to it with a large black form, probably a hanging lamp. A circular light space is ringed by heads-wheellike forms dominate even though we are aware that the table is rectangular. It is possible that Whistler later added the rich charcoal to the underlying pencil. On the verso are several pencil drawings.

• Provenance

  Seymour Haden (1818-1910), London [1]

  To 1898

  H. Wunderlich & Co., New York to 1898 [2]

  From 1898 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from H. Wunderlich & Co., through Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938), in November 1898 [3]

  From 1920

  Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Whistler List, Haden Collection Drawings, pg. 1, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [2] See Voucher No. 20, November 1898, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.

  [3] See note 2.

  [4] 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.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art—Whistler and Modern Life (May 11, 1984 to December 16, 1984)

  Drawings by James McNeill Whistler (August 1, 1974 to April 14, 1975)

  Untitled Exhibition, Whistler Drawings, Etchings, and Lithographs, 1959 (April 15, 1959 to November 2, 1959)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910)

  H. Wunderlich & Co. (1874-1912) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Drawing

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1850s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Haden, Seymour, H. Wunderlich & Co.

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, Gambling, American Art

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Drawings