Peach Blossom, c. 1890-1894

Not on View

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 23.7 × 13.8 cm (9 5/16 × 5 7/16 in.)

framed: 46.99 × 38.1 × 6.35 cm (18 1/2 × 15 × 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Rosenwald Collection

Accession Number

1943.11.8

Artists / Makers

Beatrice Godwin Whistler (painter) British, 1857 - 1896

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Probably given or bequeathed by the artist to William Webb (of James McNeill Whistler's firm of lawyers.)[1] (Forbes and Paterson), London; sold 1930 through (Charles Sessler, Philadelphia) to Lessing J. Rosenwald, Philadelphia;[2] gift to NGA, 1943.

[1] Andrew McLaren Young to William P. Campbell, 4 January 1973, in NGA curatorial files. Webb certainly owned the picture by 1904, when he exhibited it at the Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Hall, Boston, no. 76.

[2] Rosenwald purchased the picture with a certificate from Sickert (MS notebook of Rosenwald's purchases of Whistler prints, 7, in NGA archives). Dr. Margaret MacDonald supplied this reference.

Associated Names

Forbes and Paterson
Rosenwald, Lessing Julius
Sessler, Charles
Webb, William

Exhibition History

1904: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Hall, Boston, 1904, no. 76.

1931: Etchings, lithographs, original drawings, and autograph letters by James A. McNeill Whistler, 1834-1903: lent by Lessing J. Rosenwald, Esq, Free Library of Philadelphia, 1931, unnumbered and unillustrated leaflet.

Technical Summary

The support is a single piece of lightweight softwood. The ground is white, applied with sweeping brushstrokes leaving the striations clearly visible. The painting is executed very spontaneously, the figure in thick paint blended wet into wet and worked with texture, and the background with thin browns and grays through which the ground is visible. The painting is in excellent condition. Abrasion and losses are confined to the perimeter; the losses are apparently the result of adhesion of the still-wet layer to the frame. The very thinly applied natural resin varnish has not discolored.

Bibliography

1970: American Paintings and Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1970: 122, repro., as by James McNeill Whistler.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 376, repro.

1980: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1980: 310, as by Beatrix Godwin Whistler.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 437, repro.

1992: Hayes, John. British Paintings of the Sixteenth through Nineteenth Centuries. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 326-329, repro. 327.