Live Auction 16084American Art
James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Lot 71

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)

Design for a Fan

Closed22 May 2018

Price Realised

USD 100,000

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James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Design for a Fan
watercolor, gouache and pencil on paper
6 7/8 x 19 ½ in. (17.5 x 49.5 cm.)
Executed circa 1870.

(Possibly) Sotheby's, London, 9 December 1889, lot 1139 (as Sketch for a Fan, in Japanese style, in colours).
Private collection, acquired from above.
Charles H. Hannon, London, by 1904.
H.L. Sternberg, England.
Estate of the above.
Christie's, London, 24 February 1928, lot 51.
D.C. Thomson, London, acquired from the above.
Sir James Dodds, Lima, Peru, 1950.
Lady Dodds, wife of the above, by descent.
Sotheby's, London, 20 April 1966, lot 11.
Anthony D'Offay Fine Art, London, acquired from the above.
D. Owsley, 1966.
R.H. Love Galleries, Chicago, Illinois, 1987.
Pfeil Collection, Chicago, Illinois, acquired from the above.
The Jordan-Volpe Gallery, Inc., New York.
Acquired by the present owner from the above, 1996.

Specialist note

Margaret MacDonald writes of the present work, "The women bending in the breeze, with rippling draperies, resemble figures in the 'Six Projects' of 1867-8 and in particular Symphony in Blue and Pink (Freer Gallery, [Washington, D.C.]). The drawing may have been a study for the oil, in which the figures are closer together and the colours darker...Charles Hazlewood Shannon (1863-1937), the first owner, and Charles Ricketts (1866-1931) are best-known for their cover designs and illustrations for Oscar Wilde. Effete and mannered as both artist and person, Shannon was called the 'Orchid' by Wilde." (James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolors, A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven, Connecticut, 1995, p. 135-36)