Woman with a Child (Nude Figure and Cupid)

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• Description

  Nude figure in a blue cap, seated on a draped couch, with a nude child standing on her lap; signed with the butterfly at right.

• Signatures

  Pink butterfly above center at right edge

• Paper/Support

  On Japanese, laid paper mounted to a 2-ply board. There are 3.6 cm between chain lines and nine laid lines per cm.

• Label

  Whistler referred to the drawings of his model Rose Pettigrew as "Rosies." After seeing recent works by Renoir and Degas in a Paris gallery in 1891, Whistler admonished his wife, Beatrix, to take especially good care of "the beautiful Rosies" stored "in the little drawer on the sofa!!" "Take care of them Trixie--take the two drawers, just as they are, and carry them up stairs--dont let them be shaken, and cover them over with a little drapery and wait till I come back--We have no idea how precious they are!"

  Quotation from James McNeill Whistler's letter to Beatrix Whistler,

  June 1, 1891, Glasgow University Library.

• Provenance

  To 1913

  Wallis and Son, The French Gallery, London, to 1913 [1]

  From 1913 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Wallis and Son, The French Gallery in 1913 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Accession List, Collections Management office, as well as List of Whistler Purchases since Making up the Smithsonian Inventory, 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 in Watercolor (May 18 to November 3, 2019)

  Whistler's Nudes (April 21, 2002 to January 5, 2003)

  Untitled Exhibition, Whistler Paintings and Drawings (December 14, 1955 to February 25, 1956)

  Untitled Exhibition, Works of Whistler (September 22, 1947 to April 11, 1955)

  Panama-Pacific International Exposition (February 20 to December 4, 1915)

  Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler (May 1905)

  Untitled Exhibition, Saint Petersburg, 1897 (1897)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Wallis and Son, The French Gallery (C.L. Freer source)

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

• Origin

  United States

• Credit Line

  Gift of Charles Lang Freer

• Type

  Painting

• Restrictions and Rights

  Usage Conditions Apply

  There are restrictions for re-using this media. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page.

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Keep Exploring

• Related Resources

  collections.si.edu

• Date

  1890s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Wallis and Son, The French Gallery

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Art, Iron oxide red, Bone black, Zinc white, Yellow pigment, Cerulean blue, Burnt umber, Vermilion, Mounting, Yellow ocher, Charles Lang Freer collection, Mars pigment, American Art, Raw sienna, Prussian blue, Children, Woman, Burnt sienna

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Paintings