The Little Blue Cap

CC0 Public Domain Designation

Prints and Drawings

1893/95

James McNeill Whistler
American, 1834-1903

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Prints and Drawings

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Title: The Little Blue Cap
Place: United States (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1893–1895
Medium: Watercolor and opaque watercolor over charcoal on brown wove paper
Inscriptions: Inscribed verso, center, in graphite: "The Little Blue Cap"; inscribed verso, center left, in graphite: "Exhibited Paris 1905 / Rotterdam”; inscribed verso, upper left, in graphite: "60 (crossed out) 61" (circled); inscribed verso, center, in graphite: "22 x 16"
Dimensions: 27.8 × 18.2 cm (11 × 7 3/16 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
Reference Number: 2012.96
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/149537/manifest.json

Elisabeth Luther Cary, The Works of James McNeill Whistler, (New York, 1907), p. 193, no. 233.
Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels, and Watercolours, A Catalogue Raisonné (New Haven, 1995), pp. 504–05, no. 1393 (ill.).
The Broad Spectrum: Studies in the Materials, Techniques, and Conservation of Color on Paper, ed. Harriet K. Stratis and Britt Salvesen (London, 2002), p. 39, fig. 1.29.
Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection, ed. Suzanne Folds McCullagh, exh. cat. (Chicago, 2006), p. 79, no. 50 (ill.).
Lee Glazer, Emily Jacobson, Blythe McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor: Lovely Little Games, exh. cat. (Washington, D.C., 2019), p. 129.

Paris, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, “Oeuvres de James McNeill Whistler,” May–June 1905, cat. 93.
Rotterdam, Aquarellen, Pastels, Teekeningen, Etsen, “Lithographien en een Schilderij door Whistler,” Oct. 1906, cat. 5.
London, P&D Colnaghi, “Old Master Drawings,” May 10–June 14, 1956, cat. 61, pl. X.
London, Arts Council Gallery, “James McNeill Whistler,” Sept. 1–24, 1960, cat. 99; also Knoedler and Company, New York, Nov. 2–30, 1960.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, June 1964–August 1965.
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, “Whistler in New England Collections,” Nov. 22, 1977–Feb. 5, 1978.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Songs on Stone: James McNeil Whistler and the Art of Lithography,” June 6–Aug. 30, 1998, cat. 111.
Art Institute of Chicago, “The Broad Spectrum: Color on Paper, Past and Present,” Sep.t 12–Oct. 31, 1999, p. 39, fig. 1.29.
Art Institute of Chicago, “Drawings in Dialogue: Old Master Through Modern, The Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection,” June 3–July 30, 2006, p. 79, cat. 50 (ill.).

Estate of the artist, 1903; by descent to his executrix, Miss Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), the artist’s sister-in-law, 1903; sold to P.& D. Colnaghi, London, Nov. 20, 1956 [MacDonald 1995 and London 1960 exh. cat.]; sold to Mrs. Richard Warde, London, 1956 [MacDonald 1995]; sold, Christie’s, London, Mar. 5, 1965, lot. 141A, to Agnew’s, for Dorothy Braude Edinburg, Brookline, MA.; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 2012.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.