James McNeill Whistler

Design for Velarium

Date c.1887-1888
Materials Pencil, pen, brown ink and watercolour on wove paper
Dimensions 25.3 cm x 17.7 cm
Marks Signed with a butterfly and “J. McNeill Whistler” at the bottom left; inscribed in pencil by an unknown hand on verso: “Patent No 6223 / 26 / 4 / 88 Resting”
Further information GLAHA 46115.
Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler: Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours: A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1995 (1122).

Note Whistler was very concerned about the enviroment in which his paintings were exhibited, and designed a suspended canopy that hung from the roof, called a velarium, which shaded his paintings from any harsh glare from the roof lights and allowed them to be seen in a softer, more sympathetic light. This drawing shows how the canopy would be attached from the ceiling using special hooks. In 1888 Whistler applied for a patent for this invention. The velarium was used by Whistler for exhibitions held by the Society of British Artists in 1886 and the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1899. Notice that the velarium in this drawing is yellow in colour. Whistler wanted his exhibitions to be colour coordinated, so that not only his paintings but the whole effect would be beautiful, and so even the velarium was designed to fit in with the dominant colour scheme.