Le Rhin
date: label: Date
content: 1858
name: label: Artist
content: James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
notes: label: Description
content: Three men and luggage on a boat.
label: Paper/Support
content: Off-white wove paper.
label: Label
content: Whistler's descriptive powers are exhibited in this drawing of passengers on Rhine steamer. The wealth of detail seems to prefigure another passage from Flaubert's novel, "The Sentimental Education"
label: Label
content: Apart from a few bourgeois traveling first class,
label: Label
content: the passengers were laborers, or shopkeepers...In
label: Label
content: those days it was the custom to dress shabbily for a
label: Label
content: journey, so nearly all of them wore old skullcaps or
label: Label
content: faded hats, cheap black suits rubbed threadbare against
label: Label
content: desks, or frock-coats with their buttons splitting
label: Label
content: open from heavy use at the store...Some chatted
label: Label
content: together, standing or squatting on their luggage,
label: Label
content: others slept in corners.
label: Label
content: Whistler's precise notations extend to the relaxed pair of feet protruding into the picture space at the bottom right, and a tantalizing book strapped to a knapsack: La Poire aux Vanitee, perhaps a sardonic reference to the recently deposed Louis-Philippe. However, by about the time Flaubert's novel was published in 1869, Whistler was already moving beyond descriptive literalism in his painting and reaching toward abstraction that he believed was the territory of the painter and the musician, if not the writer.
label: Provenance
content: Seymour Haden (1818-1910), London [1]
label: Provenance
content: To 1898
label: Provenance
content: H. Wunderlich & Co., New York to 1898 [2]
label: Provenance
content: From 1898 to 1919
label: Provenance
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from H. Wunderlich & Co., through Thomas Wilmer Dewing (1851-1938), in November 1898 [3]
label: Provenance
content: From 1920
label: Provenance
content: Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [4]
label: Provenance
content: Notes:
label: Provenance
content: [1] See Original Whistler List, Haden Collection Drawings, pg. 2, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [2] See Voucher No. 20, November 1898, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives.
label: Provenance
content: [3] See note 2.
label: Provenance
content: [4] 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.
label: Collection
content: Freer Gallery of Art Collection
label: Exhibition History
content: James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art—Whistler and Modern Life (May 11, 1984 to December 16, 1984)
label: Exhibition History
content: Drawings by James McNeill Whistler (August 1, 1974 to April 14, 1975)
label: Exhibition History
content: Exposition des Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler (May 1905)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Francis Seymour Haden (1818-1910)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: H. Wunderlich & Co. (1874-1912) (C.L. Freer source)
label: Previous custodian or owner
content: Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919)
place: label: Origin
content: United States
topic: label: Topic
content: river
label: Topic
content: man
label: Topic
content: boat
label: Topic
content: United States
label: Topic
content: American Art
label: Topic
content: Charles Lang Freer collection
setName: label: Related Online Resources
content: Google Arts & Culture
label: See more items in
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Charles Lang Freer
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: F1898.200
objectType: label: Type
content: Drawing
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Medium
content: Pencil on white paper
label: Dimensions
content: H x W: 15.4 x 17 cm (6 1/16 x 6 11/16 in)