Red and Brown-Hoxton

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• Description

  Facade of a row of three-storied houses and shop fronts; many small figures in the foreground; signed with the butterfly at upper right.

• Signatures

  Red butterfly in upper right quadrant

• Inscriptions

  Verso: Stair Landing (unknown hand)

• Paper/Support

  On hot-pressed, wove paper mounted overall to board.

• Provenance

  To 1904

  John James Cowan (1846-1936), Edinburgh, Scotland, to 1904 [1]

  From 1904 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from John James Cowan, through William Marchant and Co, London, in June 1904 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Whistler List, Paintings, pg. 18, 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.

• Collection

  Freer Gallery of Art Collection

• Exhibition History

  Whistler: Streetscapes, Urban Change (November 18, 2023 to May 4, 2024)

  Whistler in Watercolor (May 18 to November 3, 2019)

  Whistler's Neighborhood: Impressions of a Changing London (September 8, 2012 to September 8, 2013)

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

  Whistler Water Colors (January 7, 1924 to April 4, 1930)

  78th Exhibition of the Royal Scottish Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture (Spring or Autumn of 1904)

  Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler (February 23 to March 22, 1904)

  Pictures, Drawings, Bronzes, Pottery, Antique Furniture, Decorative Metal Work (1898)

  Untitled exhibition, Institute of Fine Arts, Glasgow (1896)

  "Notes"—"Harmonies"—"Nocturnes" (May 1886)

• Previous custodian or owner

  John James Cowan (1846-1936) (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

  This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1880s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Cowan, John James

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Art, Iron oxide red, Bone black, Store front, Madder, Zinc white, Cadmium sulfide, Cerulean blue, Vermilion, Mounting, Yellow ocher, Charles Lang Freer collection, Mars pigment, American Art, Raw sienna, Strontium chromate, Prussian blue, Burnt sienna

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Paintings