The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Blue and Gold – The Rose Azalea dates from 1894/1895. It was bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in 1894 and received in 1896. ¹

Blue and Gold – The Rose Azalea, Freer Gallery of Art

It was catalogued in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1392) dated 1893/1895.

Images

Subject

Sitter

Blue and Gold – The Rose Azalea, Freer Gallery of Art

Unidentified.

Technique

Composition

The Little Blue Cap, Art Institute of Chicago

Blue and Gold – The Rose Azalea, Freer Gallery of Art

Blue and Gold - The Rose Azalea m1392 and The Little Blue Cap m1393 are closely related in composition and technique.

Technique

Blue and Gold – The Rose Azalea, Freer Gallery of Art

Whistler drew the figure first in chalk; he left some areas – such as her lips – unpainted. Originally the turban was higher, and some pale greeny-blue gouache was applied over her head to disguise the alteration. The paint was applied with a small brush, a full brush of paint so thick it tended to granulate. The slightly uneven way that the thick pigments separate adds luminosity to the colour. Whistler may have dropped extra white into the paint to accentuate this, even as it dried. The silvery white gouache of her dress was applied in ribbon-like separate strokes. Many washes of thinner paint were laid over the screen, with soft, silky effect.

See further technical details in Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.

Conservation History

The paper has long fibres, easily disturbed.

History

Provenance

• 1894: bought from Whistler by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit, 23 November;
• 1919: bequeathed to the Freer Gallery of Art.

See further details in MacDonald 1995 (cat. rais.) [more] (cat. no. 1392).

Exhibitions

• 1903: Seventy-second Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1903 (cat. no. 4).
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 111) as 'Blue and Gold. The Rose Azalea'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 138) as 'Blue and Gold. The Rose Azalea'.

By the terms of Freer's will, this work cannot be lent to another venue.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• MacDonald, Margaret F., James McNeill Whistler. Drawings, Pastels and Watercolours. A Catalogue Raisonné, New Haven and London, 1995 (cat. no. 1392) as 'Blue and Gold – The Rose Azalea'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Seventy-second Annual Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1903 (cat. no. 4).
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 111) as 'Blue and Gold. The Rose Azalea'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 138) as 'Blue and Gold. The Rose Azalea'.

Books on Whistler

• Glazer, Lee, Emily Jacobson, Blythe McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor: Lovely Little Games, New Haven and London, 2019.
• Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington, DC, and London, 1995, nos. 22 and 28, pp. 101-02, 111-12, plate. 8.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, p. 205, pl. 137.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1894.25a-c, as 'Blue and Gold–The Rose Azalea'.
• Margaret F. MacDonald, Grischka Petri, Meg Hausberg, and Joanna Meacock, James McNeill Whistler: The Etchings, a catalogue raisonné, University of Glasgow, 2012, online website. GUW #01509, #01534.
• Whistler in Watercolour, Freer|Sackler, Washington, 2019, website.