Venice Harbor F1905.118a-b: Curatorial Analysis | Whistler in Watercolor

Maker nationality and date: 1834-1903

Date(s): 1879-1880

Medium: Watercolor on paper

Dimension(s): H x W: 12.2 x 27.8 cm (4 13/16 x 10 15/16 in)

Credit Line: Gift of Charles Lang Freer

Object Number: F1905.118a-b

Production location: Italy, Venice

Theme: Seascape

Signature(s): Blue butterfly in lower left corner

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. 20B, 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:
Two pivotal events in Whistler's career occurred in 1877 and 1878: a falling-out over the Peacock Room with his primary patron, industrialist Frederick Leyland, and an expensive libel suit against critic John Ruskin. The Ruskin trial transformed Whistler into a celebrity, but it also left him bankrupt. Hoping to recover financially, he accepted a three-month commission from the Fine Art Society of London to produce a set of twelve etchings of Venice. More than a year later, he returned from Italy with fifty etchings, a hundred pastels, several oil paintings, and at least three watercolors. Blurring distinctions between pastel, watercolor, and etching, Whistler manipulated materials to capture the evocative atmosphere of Venice.
2. Kenneth Myers, wall label, 2003:
One of only two watercolors Whistler is known to have completed while in Venice, Venice Harbour depicts a view from the public gardens, looking northwest toward St. Mark's basilica. The brown tower left of center is the Campanile, which rises behind the pale facade of the Doge's Palace. Along with a related pastel Whistler titled The Giudecca-Winter; grey and blue (now in a private collection), Venice Harbour was probably completed in November or December 1879.

Selected Published References: 1. Curry: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, Pg. 176
In scale and composition, Venice Harbor resembles the broad and distant Venetian views in related prints and pastels. Except for a smear of ocher, red, and black in the large boat at the right, the colors have a dry and scrubbed appearance, with a great deal of paper left showing. Touches of semi-opaque gouache help give substance to the buildings strung across the center of the sheet. While Whistler received a good deal of attention for his etchings and pastels of Venice, little notice was generated by scenes of the city executed in watercolor. J.M.W. Turner was noted for his watercolors of Venice, and the critic John Ruskin had championed Turner while attacking Whistler. Since Whistler came to the Italian city immediately after the financially disastrous Ruskin libel suit, it is possible that he decided not to create his vision of Venice using Turner's medium.

Catalogue Raisonne number: M726
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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