Provenance

• 1903: in Whistler's studio at his death and bequeathed to his ward and executrix, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958);
• 1935: given by Miss R. Birnie Philip to the University of Glasgow.

Exhibitions

• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 76) as 'La Mer; Bretagne'.

It was not, as far as is known, exhibited during Whistler's lifetime. The first known exhibition was in Paris in 1905.

When it was shown at Colnaghi's in London in 1915, the Observer, in a generally critical review, singled it out as among 'a few things of supreme quality':

"The tiny little painting, 'The Sea: Brittany,' is an achievement of astounding completeness, considering the summary breadth of handling and the minuteness of scale: just a bit of the sea on a clear, bright day, with a few sailing boats on the distant horizon, with the swell of the water ... the relation of the waters and the sky -- everything is indicated with a precision and sureness that were by no means always at Whistler's command." 1

Similarly, the art critic of The Times praised it:

"The little oil painting 'The Sea: Brittany' ... is just the sea and the sky. It is not Whistler telling us that he will do as he pleases because he is a great artist. There he has forgotten himself in what he has seen, and has painted like a poet who makes music of his memory of some event. The movement of the clouds, of the ships, of the waves - those are what touched him in reality, and these he gives us quite simply and directly without thinking of the butterfly and all its controversies." 2

By the terms of Miss Birnie Philip's gift to the University of Glasgow, it is not now lendable to another venue.