The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Grey and Silver – North Sea dates from about 1884, and was exhibited in that year.

Grey and Silver – North Sea, Fitzwilliam Museum

This work is catalogued fully in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 937).

Images

Subject

Description

Grey and Silver – North Sea, Fitzwilliam Museum

A grey, windy, rainy day: to right of centre is a two masted sailing ship, and in the distance at right, possibly a pier or jetty, with ships moored in front of it.

Site

Grey and Silver – North Sea, Fitzwilliam Museum

The title specifies that this is a view of the North Sea. It could have been painted in the Netherlands or northern France.

Technique

Technique

Grey and Silver – North Sea, Fitzwilliam Museum

See MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 937).

History

Provenance

• By 1903: owned by Mrs Charles Julius Kino/Knowles (née Louisa Essinger) (b.1850, m.1874), Kensington Gore;
• 1959: bequeathed by her son, Guy John Fenton Kino or Knowles (1879-1959), to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 937).

Exhibitions

• 1889: “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 13) as 'Grey and Silver – North Sea' .
• 1903: probably Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 37) as 'Grey and Silver, the Channel'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 112) as 'In the Channel'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 66) as 'In the Channel'.

The New York Herald, 2 March 1889, commended it mildly as 'worthy of particular mention ... a fog effect on the North Sea.' It was priced at 45 guineas, but remained unsold, and was returned to Whistler after the exhibition by Wunderlich's, on the SS Servia. ¹

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 937) as 'Grey and Silver – North Sea'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889 (cat. no. 13) as 'Grey and Silver – North Sea' .
• Probably Watercolours, Pastels, Drawings in Black and White, Sculptures and Bronzes By British and Foreign Artists Including A Selection of Works by H. B. Brabazon, and A Group of Works by the late James McNeill Whistler, W. Marchant & Co., Goupil Gallery, London, 1903 (cat. no. 37) as 'Grey and Silver, the Channel'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 112) as 'In the Channel'.
• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 66) as 'In the Channel'.

Newspapers 1855-1905

• New York Herald, New York, 2 March 1889.

Books on Whistler

• Menpes, Mortimer, 'Reminiscences of Whistler, recorded by Dorothy Menpes', The Studio, vol. 29, September 1903, pp. 245-57, repr. p. 251 as 'A little sea piece'.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006, pp. 48, 187 (cat. no. 107), repr. p. 148.

Websites

• Fitzwilliam Museum website.