James Abbott McNeill Whistler
American artist, 1834-1903
"James Abbott McNeill Whistler was an American artist active during the American Gilded Age and based primarily in the United Kingdom. He was averse to sentimentality and moral allusion in painting, and a leading proponent of the credo ""art for art's sake"". He found a parallel between painting and music and entitled many of his paintings ""arrangements"", ""harmonies"", and ""nocturnes"", emphasizing the primacy of tonal harmony. His most famous painting ""Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1"" (1871), commonly known as ""Whistler's Mother"", is a revered and often parodied portrait of motherhood and another Whistler exercise in tonal harmony and composition."
Source: Wikipedia
American painter and etcher (1834-1903). Nice ink signature and inscription, "Mrs. MacNary, with the compliments of J. McNeill Whistler,” on an album page. Oblong-8vo. 1 p.
$ 1,005 / 950 €
(80735)
Nice ink signature and inscription, "Mrs. MacNary, with the compliments of J. McNeill Whistler,” on an off-white 6 x 4 card, adding his monogrammed 'butterfly' signature below. In fine condition, with a vague central vertical fold.
American painter and etcher (1834-1903). Autograph letter signed ("J. A. M. WHistler"). "9 Lindsey Row, Old Battersea Bridge, Chelsea. 8vo. 2¼ pp. on bifolium.
$ 1,587 / 1.500 €
(62345/BN45561)
To Ernest Brown: "I have just got your letter and am sorry about Tuesday's dinner coming to grief - I haste now to write and tell you that being judged sufficiently recovered by my brother, I am to go down and meet my Mother in the country and bring her back on Monday morning [...]". - Whistler goes on to discuss plans and is very desirous of "showing you what I am about", etc. - A nice letter with much cirtuitious meandering in trying to establish a meeting.
American painter and etcher (1834-1903). Autograph manuscript written in ink, with two pencil sketches, signed with his butterfly monogram. N. p. 8vo. 3 pp. on bifolium.
$ 4,761 / 4.500 €
(62346/BN45562)
To "my dear Black": "Noch nicht! noch nicht! my dear Black! I am a little behind hand - curious aint it! That confounded Peacock Room has nearly ruined me and I have had to work frightfully to make up for it. It will be all right directly of course but I am woefully pushed. - Beseech HRH to be indulgent and appoint some day next week - say Saturday or Friday afternoon at about 5 'o'clock and I will try to be ready for her and shall be so enchanted to see her interest in what I have been doing - I think you will like the pictures - manage this my dear Black for your [xxx] [Whistler's butterfly monogram].
Just write a line to say it is all right". - The letter discusses a proposed visit from Princess Louise, the daughter of Queen Victoria and wife of the Marquis of Lorne. The Princess was herself an artist - a sculptor of note - and Whistler's correspondence indicates she took a keen interest in his work. The two pencil sketches appear to have been drawn before the letter was written. If they are by Whistler, we can assume that they have something to do with a commission he was working on for Princess Louise. The drawings seem to be preliminary sketches for a crest, which features a dog and crossed swords. - The stupendously opulent and beautiful Peacock Room was painted by James A. McNeill Whistler during late 1876 and early 1877. The entire room is decorated in oil colour and gold on wood, leather and canvas, its Orientalist theme crowned by Whistler's painting The Princess from the Land of Porcelain. The Peacock Room is now installed in the Freer Gallery of Art (Smithsonian Institution) in Washington D.C., but was originally designed for use as the dining room in the London residence of Frederick R. Leyland, a wealthy English shipping magnate. In 1904, after the house had changed hands, the American Charles L. Freer, founder of the Freer Gallery of Art, was able to purchase the contents of the room, have it dismantled and shipped to his home in Detroit, where it was installed in an addition to his home in 1905. In 1919 it was once more dismantled and transported to its permanent location in the Freer Gallery in Washington, D.C. - Slightly stained..
sold
Autograph letter signed.
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar
To Sir Dighton, private secretary to the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII): "May I still further beg you to say to the Prince, for me, how keenly I appreciate the pains he has taken to gratify our wish. Knowing as I do, how overwhelmed he is with the duties and engagements I am exceedingly touched by the very special favor shown - and in the indulgence at such a late hour, I even venture to find a personal and Royal courtesy to myself! [...]". - On stationery with black border; with handwritten docket on the integral leaf. Fine. - From the collection of Diana Herzog.
Two autograph letters signed.
Autograph ist nicht mehr verfügbar
Two letters written by Whistler to E. T. Cook, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, suggesting publication of illustrations of his paintings "The Little White Girl" and "Miss Alexander", and enclosing a letter (not present) which he would like to have printed "in tomorrow's issue, as it stands". - Slightly toned, the two matted in a double-glazed frame. - Together with an autograph letter signed by Wyke Bayliss, President of the Royal Society of British Artists, to the editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, giving details of the dispute that had arisen between the Society and Whistler (its former President); the dispute caused by the removal of Whistler's butterfly signature from the notice board that he designed for the Society; Bayliss requests publication of "this simple statement of the facts as they occurred".