Technique

It was painted boldly and freely, except for some details along the horizon, including a couple of boats and possibly buildings and a jetty. The brushstrokes on sea and sky are unusually broad, and mostly applied with full brushloads of paint, which sank quickly into the slightly rough brown paper. Areas were left bare, particularly to suggest the breaking waves. It is likely that the artist was working fast under difficult conditions (there are a number of tiny spots on the surface that might be due to salt spray).

The free wavy brushstrokes that depict the waves are similar to those on several later seascapes. including Blue and Silver: Dieppe [YMSM 499] and Green and Silver: The Great Sea [YMSM 518].

The use of gouache in the sky was dictated by necessity, ensuring the colours of the sky show up on the dark paper. A similar use of gouache (body-colour) is seen, for instance, in Shop Front: Dieppe [M.1517].

There is a wide range of small variations in the butterflies used on Whistler's late works; the one on Stormy sea is similar but not identical to ones on other paintings.