Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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YMSM 274
The Sea Coast

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1897
Collection: State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg
Accession Number: ГЭ-6527
Medium: oil
Support: wood
Size: 140 x 240 mm (5 1/2 x 9 1/2")
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: none
print

The Sea Coast

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

  • 'Seroe more' (grey sea) (1921, Pertsev). 1
  • 'The Sea Coast' (1969, Kroll). 2
  • 'The Sea Coast' (1980, YMSM). 3
  • 'The Sea Coast. Marine. Arrangement en gris et noir' (2006, State Tretyakow Gallery). 4

Since Whistler's original title is not known, 'The Sea Coast' is the preferred title.

Description

The Sea Coast, State Hermitage Museum
The Sea Coast, State Hermitage Museum

A beach scene in horizontal format. It is divided roughly into three horizontal bands: a pale grey cloudy sky, a rich green sea, with a fishing boat and nets on the shoreline at left, and a pale beige beach. There are several small figures, possibly working at rolling or repairing nets.

Site

Possibly painted in the popular fishing and tourist town of Étretat in the Seine-Maritime department of the Normandie region in north-western France.

Notes:

1: Pertsev, P. P., Shchukinskoe sobranie frantsuzskoi zhxvopisi, Moscow, 1921, p. 116.

2: Kroll 1969 [more], pp. 109-10, repr. p. 110.

3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 274).

4: MacDonald, Margaret, 'James McNeill Whistler', Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006, pp. 16-57, at p. 47.

Last updated: 9th March 2020 by Margaret