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Lot 83
James Abbott McNeill Whistler(1834-1903)Sketch of a City Landscape with Arched Bridge
26 September – 7 October 2025, 12:00 EDT
Skinner Marlborough, MassachusettsSold for US$10,240 inc. premium
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Jelena James
Senior Specialist, Head of Sale
Claire Dettelbach
Cataloguer
Jewel Bernier
Cataloguer
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Sketch of a City Landscape with Arched Bridge
partial butterfly image (upper right); inscribed in pencil '13597' or perhaps 'B 597' (lower right of the reverse)
charcoal on brown paper
sheet size 7 1/4 x 11 in. (18.5 x 28.0 cm)
Executed in 1872-73.
partial butterfly image (upper right); inscribed in pencil '13597' or perhaps 'B 597' (lower right of the reverse)
charcoal on brown paper
sheet size 7 1/4 x 11 in. (18.5 x 28.0 cm)
Executed in 1872-73.
Footnotes
Provenance
Parke-Bernet, New York, May 27, 1974, lot 41J, according to a photographic record in the Witt Photographic Collection, Courtauld, London.
N.B.
James Abbott McNeill Whistler was one of the most influential figures in American and European 19th-century art. He derived inspiration from myriad periods, places, and styles, including Classical sculpture, Japanese design aesthetics, Asian ceramics, and Dutch and Spanish Baroque portraiture.
Whistler was born in Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1842, the family moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, when Whistler's father was recruited to help design the Saint Petersburg-Moscow Railway. In Russia, Whistler studied drawing at the Imperial Academy of Arts and began seriously considering a future career as an artist. His studies were interrupted when, upon Whistler's father's death from cholera, he and his mother returned to the U.S. and settled in Pomfret, Connecticut. After a brief stint at the United States Military Academy at West Point and then a few years with the U.S. Coast Survey, Whistler finally decided to pursue art full time and moved to Paris in 1855. While abroad Whistler lived a somewhat bohemian existence, traveling throughout France and Europe before eventually settling in London in 1859. Here he was introduced to artists such as Henri Fantin-Latour, Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, and Carolus-Duran, and began experimenting with the confluence of Realist, Pre-Raphaelite, and Impressionist influences. He emerged as one of the most innovative Aesthetic and Post-Impressionist artists of the time, advocating for "art for art's sake" and prioritizing beauty above all.
The present work dates to the early 1870s, a period in which Whistler produced his first few nocturnes of the River Thames and other London cityscapes, and it is possible that this sketch is a study for one such work. The butterfly signature, visible here in the upper right corner, was developed by Whistler in 1860 under the influence of potters' marks and Asian art.
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed via in-person examination by Margaret MacDonald. We would like to thank Professor MacDonald for her kind assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.