Gambling Salon at Baden-Baden

Maker(s)
Artist: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Historical period(s)
1858
Medium
Pencil and charcoal on white paper
Dimensions
H x W: 22.2 x 26.8 cm (8 3/4 x 10 9/16 in)
Geography
United States
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1898.163
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Drawing
Type

Drawing

Keywords
gambling, United States
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.

Previous Owner(s)

Francis Seymour Haden 1818-1910
Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
H. Wunderlich & Co. (C.L. Freer source) 1874-1912

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.

Published References
  • Margaret F. MacDonald. James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolours : A Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, 1995. .
  • David Park Curry. James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1984. pp. 27, 227, pl. 182.
Collection Area(s)
American Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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