Breakfast in the Garden F1905.122a-b: Curatorial Analysis | Whistler in Watercolor

Maker nationality and date: 1834-1903

Date(s): 1885-1886

Medium: Watercolor on paper

Dimension(s): H x W: 12.7 x 21.9 cm (5 x 8 5/8 in)

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Object Number: F1905.122a-b

Alternate title: Ranelegh Gardens

Production location: England, London, Chelsea

Theme: Figure; Interior

Signature(s): Unsigned.

Provenance: To 1905
Thomas Way Sr. (1827-1915), London, or Thomas Robert Way (1861-1913), London, to 1905 [1]

From 1905 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Thomas Way Sr. or Thomas Robert Way in 1905 [2]

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

Notes:

[1] See Original Whistler List, Paintings, pg. 20C, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Thomas Way Sr. and his son, Thomas Robert Way, were lithographers who worked closely with Whistler on several of his projects. They helped with the printing of his etchings, as well as the printing of Whistler’s promotional materials. Both Thomas Way Sr. and Thomas Robert Way owned many Whistler works. Thomas Way Sr. acquired several of these works at the time of Whistler’s bankruptcy, and he passed some of them on to his son (see The Correspondence of James McNeill Whistler, 1855-1903, ed. Margaret F. MacDonald, Patricia de Montfort and Nigel Thorp, On-line Edition, People, biographies of Thomas Way and Thomas Robert Way; http://www.whistler.arts.gla.ac.uk/correspondence).

Charles Lang Freer acquired many Whistler pieces from the Ways. However, museum records do not always specify whether it was the younger or elder Way who was the source of a particular object. Further, archival sources indicate that the junior Way sometimes acted on behalf of his father: whilst negotiating the sale of his own Whistler works to C.L. Freer, he would concurrently negotiate the sale of some of his father’s Whistler works to Freer. In cases where it is unclear whether it was the junior or senior Way who actually owned a piece acquired by C.L. Freer, the provenance record will simply state that the object was purchased from “Thomas Way Sr. or Thomas Robert Way.”

[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.

Selected Curatorial Remarks: 1. Glazer, Jacobson, McCarthy, Roeder, wall label, 2019:
Whistler's domestic interiors often convey a sense of intimacy or capture a private moment. An early work in this vein is Harmony in Green and Rose: The Music Room (1860-61), an oil painting of his half-sister (playing a hidden piano), his niece, and a family friend. Twenty years later he returned to the theme in his watercolors.
He frequently depicted his model and longtime companion Maud Franklin, recognizable by her auburn hair, in quiet moments at home. Several compositions contain suggestions of an unseen person – perhaps the artist himself – by including a hat on the bed or an empty chair.
2. Lee Glazer, 2018:
Changed title from "Breakfast in the Garden (verso) Two Sketches for Furniture" to "Breakfast in the Garden." Added "Ranelagh Gardens" as alternate title. Changed date from "ca. 1883" to "1885-1886." On verso: Two sketches for furniture. Date changed to coincide with Whistler's move to The Vale, the likely location for this work.
3. Susan Hobbs, 1978:
The model for this fluidly rendered watercolor is Maud Franklin as she is seated at breakfast in Ranelagh Gardens, Chelsea. Maud was Whistler's mistress for about twelve years before he married Beatrix Godwin in 1888.

Selected Published References: 1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Pg. 195
While the model for this fluidly rendered watercolor was Maud Franklin, her setting is debatable. Thomas Way, who sold the drawing to Freer, believed that Maud was sitting in Ranelagh Gardens, and the work has been published under that title. Ranelagh Gardens flourished as a public pleasure ground in Chelsea from 1742 to 1803. Its popularity waned during the early nineteenth century, and it was replanned and planted with shady walks and undulating lawns between 1859 and 1866. It would have been a restful and secluded spot by the time this watercolor was painted. However, it seems troublesome to have dragged furniture to a public garden. Freer believed that the painting depicts the private garden at the Vale, where Maud and Whistler were living by 1885. In any case the watercolor was made in Chelsea, and whether the spot was public or private, Whistler's gray-green image is evocative of "old London gardens...like pale wraiths of the past."

Catalogue Raisonne number: M927
MacDonald Catalogue number

Previous owner(s): Thomas Way Sr. (1837-1915)
Thomas Robert Way (C.L. Freer source) (1861-1913)
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)

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Breakfast in the Garden

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