The Steps

Object Details

• Artist

  James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

• Label

  Aesthetically conservative reviewers condemned Whistler's pastels for their lack of conventional "finish." The reviewer for the World, for example, concluded that Mr. Whistler is "too soon satisfied with mere intimations and suggestions; he holds his hand while completeness is yet afar off; his impressions are slight, or he indicates them too faintly, vaguely, and incoherently. How many of these pastels suffer from the vacant spaces 'to let' of plain untinctured brown paper, from indecision of line, from lack of foreground, from the absence, indeed, of industry and conscientious workmanship!"

  Quotation from "Fine Arts: Mr. Whistler's 'Venice Pastels,'" World, February 2, 1881.

• Provenance

  To 1917

  Mrs. Louisine Havemeyer, New York to 1917 [1]

  From 1917 to 1919

  Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), given by Mrs. Louisine Havemeyer in 1917 [2]

  From 1920

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

  Notes:

  [1] See Original Whistler List, pg. 16, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. See also, a letter from Mrs. Havemeyer in Envelope File.

  [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 Venice: The Pastels (January 19 to June 15, 2003)

  James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art—Whistler and the Landscape (May 11, 1984 to February 5, 1985)

  James McNeill Whistler Pastels, Etchings, Paintings, Watercolors (November 11, 1976 to June 24, 1977)

  Whistler Pastels and Water Colors (July 1 to July 31, 1974)

  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)

  Untitled Exhibition, Whistler Watercolors, Oil Paintings, and Pastels (January 20, 1944 to October 13, 1947)

  Whistler Pastels and Drawings, Re-arranged and some additions (January 7, 1924 to January 20, 1944)

  American Paintings, Pastels, and Water Colors, and Drawings. J.A.McN. Whistler (May 2, 1923 to January 7, 1924)

• Previous custodian or owner

  Mrs. Louisine Havemeyer (1855-1929) (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

  1880s

• Name

  Freer, Charles Lang, Havemeyer, Louisine

• Place

  United States

• Topic

  Charles Lang Freer collection, Art, American Art, Store front

• Culture

  Americans

• Object Type

  Drawings