James Abbott McNeill Whistler American, 1834-1903 A Confrontation, 1853 Signed indistinctly ...Whistler and inscribed Club Sketch (lr); signed J. Whistler, inscribed West Point/... and dated 1853 on the verso; inscribed Whistler/Sketch Club/West Point/painted by Whistler during/his year at West Point/Academy/given to his friend/and classmate/Alex S. Webb on old labels affixed to the reverse Watercolor on paper 8 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches In an email dated 4 April 2013, Margaret MacDonald writes that the present work "fits very well with the style and technique of drawings and watercolours done while [Whistler] was a student at West Point, between 1852 and 1854. The provenance fits this too, Alexander Webb owned several of his sketches and was a close friend. In my catalogue raisonné of Whistler's Drawings, Pastels and watercolours (Yale 1995), cat. no. 168 mentions Scenes from cadet life and Hugo or Dumas and I strongly suspect that this watercolour may illustrate a Dumas story though I have not been able to identify it, and Hugo or Scott are other possible sources. It appears to show courtiers, cavaliers or soldiers, one being murdered (he has dropped his sword, and a chair is overturned in the foreground, so maybe they have fought) for a document now held triumphantly by the central figure.... The subject fits in with Whistler's romantic interests at the time in literature and art, and in my opinion it is by him. "I suspect that it is Whistler's signature on the recto, but not on the verso. The inscriptions were more likely written by Webb on the verso." A letter from Dr. MacDonald, to whom we send our thanks for her very kind assistance, accompanies this lot. C Property of a Greenwich Village Collector
Toned. Work is glued at the corners to the back matting.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler American, 1834-1903 A Confrontation, 1853 Signed indistinctly ...Whistler and inscribed Club Sketch (lr); signed J. Whistler, inscribed West Point/... and dated 1853 on the verso; inscribed Whistler/Sketch Club/West Point/painted by Whistler during/his year at West Point/Academy/given to his friend/and classmate/Alex S. Webb on old labels affixed to the reverse Watercolor on paper 8 3/4 x 5 3/4 inches In an email dated 4 April 2013, Margaret MacDonald writes that the present work "fits very well with the style and technique of drawings and watercolours done while [Whistler] was a student at West Point, between 1852 and 1854. The provenance fits this too, Alexander Webb owned several of his sketches and was a close friend. In my catalogue raisonné of Whistler's Drawings, Pastels and watercolours (Yale 1995), cat. no. 168 mentions Scenes from cadet life and Hugo or Dumas and I strongly suspect that this watercolour may illustrate a Dumas story though I have not been able to identify it, and Hugo or Scott are other possible sources. It appears to show courtiers, cavaliers or soldiers, one being murdered (he has dropped his sword, and a chair is overturned in the foreground, so maybe they have fought) for a document now held triumphantly by the central figure.... The subject fits in with Whistler's romantic interests at the time in literature and art, and in my opinion it is by him. "I suspect that it is Whistler's signature on the recto, but not on the verso. The inscriptions were more likely written by Webb on the verso." A letter from Dr. MacDonald, to whom we send our thanks for her very kind assistance, accompanies this lot. C Property of a Greenwich Village Collector
Toned. Work is glued at the corners to the back matting.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
