Brightly colored pastel drawing of street with buildings
Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College
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Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

We see a narrow street with buildings on either side. The right row of buildings is more detailed than the left, which is outlined in black pastel with areas of green and brown suggesting trees and shutters. The right row of buildings is varied, with awnings, balconies, and windows in bright reds, oranges, greens, blues, and whites. Similarly brightly colored people fill the street. A brown shape in the left foreground suggests a dog. The sky, a narrow strip between the rows of buildings, is light blue. In the distance we see the edge of a body of water.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.615
People
James Abbott McNeill Whistler, American (Lowell, MA 1834 - 1903 London, England)
Title
Behind the Arsenal
Other Titles
Former Title: Alley in Venice
Former Title: Street in Venice 1880
Former Title: Calle, Venice
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
1880
Culture
American
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/308036

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Pastel on brown wove paper
Dimensions
26 x 17.8 cm (10 1/4 x 7 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: black and brown pastel, l.l.: butterfly monogram
  • inscription: recto, lower left, a butterfly monogram in black and brown chalk

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
J. P. Heseltine, before 1886; Alphonse Kann; his sale to Grenville L. Winthrop through Martin Birnbaum, December 1, 1927; his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.615
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • New Gallery, Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the Late J. McNeill Whistler, exh. cat. (London, England, 1905), reproduced, p. 80
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, J. B. Lippincott/W. Heinemann (Philadelphia, PA and London, England, 1908), vol. I, p. 268, reproduced
  • Thomas R. Way, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, John Lane Co. (New York, 1912), reproduced facing p. 52
  • Elizabeth Robins Pennell and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, J. B. Lippincott and Co. (Philadelphia, PA, 1921), p. 182
  • Denys Sutton, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, Phaidon Press Limited (London, England, 1963), p. 100
  • Denys Sutton, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolors, Phaidon Press (London, England, 1966), p. 193; reproduced p. 86
  • Margaret F. MacInnes, "Whistler's Last Years: Spring 1901 - Algiers and Corsica", Gazette des Beaux-Arts (May 1969 - June 1969), vol. 73, pp. 323-42, p. 333, fig. 9
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), p. 244
  • Tom Prideaux, The World of Whistler: 1834-1903, Time-Life Books (New York, NY, 1970), p. 140, reproduced
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 1995), pp. 296, reproduced, no. 781
  • Alastair Grieve, Whistler's Venice, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT and London, England, 2000), fig. 169 (color), p. 136
  • Margaret F. MacDonald, Palaces in the Night: Whistler in Venice, exh. cat., Lund Humphries (Berkeley, CA and Los Angeles, 2001), p. 154
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., "American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950", American Art Review (April 2006), XVIII, no. 2, pp. 88-93, repr. p. 88
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., American Watercolors and Pastels 1875-1950 at the Fogg Art Museum, brochure, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2006), checklist
  • Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., Virginia Anderson, and Kimberly Orcutt, ed., American Paintings at Harvard, Volume Two, Paintings, Drawings, Pastels and Stained Glass by Artists Born 1826-1856, Harvard Art Museums and Yale University Press (U.S.) (Cambridge, MA and New Haven, CT, 2008), p. 416-419, cat. no. 444, reproduced in color, p. 416

Exhibition History

  • Venice Pastels, The Fine Art Society, London, 01/29/1881 - 04/01/1881
  • Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler: First President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, London, 02/22/1905 - 04/15/1905
  • L'Oeuvre de James McNeill Whistler, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 05/01/1905 - 06/30/1905
  • Loan Collection of Works by James McNeill Whistler, National Gallery, London, 07/01/1912 - 10/01/1912
  • American Watercolors and Pastels, 1875-1950, at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/08/2006 - 06/25/2006

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu