
Public collection via the Art Institute of Chicago
AT-00000181Scene from Bohemian Life
Inscriptions
Signed recto, lower right, in image, in ink: "J. Whistler"
Provenance
Given by John F. O'Connell, Chicago, to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1956.
Exhibition history
Art Institute of Chicago, "James McNeill Whistler," 1968, pp. 20, 98-99, cat. 75 (ill.); also Utica, NY, Munson-Williams-Procter Institute, 1968. Berlin, Nationalgalerie, "James McNeill Whistler," 1969, cat. 62. Art Gallery of Ontario, "The Etchings of James McNeill Whistler," Nov. 24, 1984-Jan. 11, 1985. Paris, Grand Palais, "Bohèmes: De Léonard de Vinci à Picasso," Sept. 26, 2012- Jan. 14, 2013, p. 266, cat. 119 (ill.). Art Institute of Chicago, "Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions," June 20-Sept. 27, 2015, checklist para. 10, cat. 9.1 (ill.). Tate Britain, London, "James McNeill Whistler", May 21 - September 27, 2026, traveled to Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, October 16, 2026 - January 10, 2027, Washington, National Museum of Asian Art, February 6 - July 5, 2027, p. 13 (ill.), cat. by Carol Jacobi, et. al.
Publications
Nancy D. Pressly, "Whistler in America: An Album of Early Drawings," Metropolitan Museum Journal V (1972), fig. 33. Frances Spalding, Whistler (Oxford, 1979), pp. 9-12 (ill.). Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 1995), p. 65, no. 213 (ill.). The Lithographs of James McNeill Whistler: A Catalogue Raisonne, ed. Harriet K. Stratis and Martha Tedeschi (Chicago, 1998), p. 35. Daniel Sutherland, Whistler: A Life for Art’s Sake (New Haven and London, 2014), p. 41. Meg Hausberg and Victoria Sancho Lobis. Whistler and Roussel: Linked Visions. Department of Publishing of The Art Institute of Chicago, 2015 (https://publications.artic.edu/whistler/reader/linkedvisions; Accessed August 24, 2013), checklist para. 10, cat. 9.1 (ill.).
Data retrieved from the Art Institute of Chicago on October 7, 2026. The museum may have updated its record since.
Quick Overview
- Artist
- James McNeill Whistler / American, 1834-1903
- Date
- 1855/57
- Medium
- Pen and black ink and black watercolor over graphite, with touches of white opaque paint (discolored), on tan laid paper laid down on cream board
- Dimensions
- 22.4 × 24 cm (8 7/8 × 9 1/2 in.)
- Type
- Drawing
- Classification
- pen and ink drawings
- Place
- United States
- Department
- Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of John F. O'Connell
- Accession no.
- 1956.350
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Open-access museum record · AT-00000181
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