The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud was probably painted in St Ives, between January and March 1884. ¹

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud, Freer Gallery of Art

It was first exhibited in Whistler's one-man show of 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 52).

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

• 'Note in blue and opal – The Sun Cloud' (1884, Dowdeswell). ²
• 'Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud' (1980, YMSM). ³

The punctuation of the original title has been altered to 'Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud' to conform with other titles.

Description

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud, Freer Gallery of Art

A landscape in horizontal format. A dark landscape, with a few house roofs seen beyond the summit of a sloping field at right, and trees at left. There appears to be a wall sloping across the field from upper left to lower right. There are scattered clouds across the pale blue sky.

Site

Probably the fishing village of St Ives, Cornwall.

Technique

Technique

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud, Freer Gallery of Art

It is painted thinly, with jerky, almost dry brushwork, over a grey ground. Some angular scratches in the upper left corner suggest that there may have originally been another sketch underneath.

Conservation History

There are some signs of abrasion, particularly at the edges. According to Freer Gallery of Art files, it was cleaned and resurfaced in 1921, resurfaced in 1931, cleaned and varnished in 1937, resurfaced in 1938, cleaned and surfaced in 1951.

Frame

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud, frame

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud, Freer Gallery of Art

A replica Dowdeswell frame, American, made by W. Lewin, 2004. ⁴

History

Provenance

• 1884: bought from the artist by Wickham Flower (1835-1904);
• 1904: after his death in September 1904, sold at auction, Christie's, London, 17 December 1904 (lot 40), and bought by Colnaghi, London art dealers, for £189;
• 1904: sold by Colnaghi's to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

Wickham Flower offered £160 for An Orange Note: Sweet Shop y264, Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud y271 and Harmony in Brown and Gold: Old Chelsea Church y305 but Whistler said Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud alone was priced 130 guineas in the Dowdeswell catalogue and suggested £160 for two (Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud and An Orange Note: Sweet Shop y264) to which Wickham Flower agreed. ⁵ Messrs Colnaghi bought it from Christie's, 17 December 1904 (lot 40), for £189, and sold it to C. L. Freer on 4 January 1905, with An Orange Note: Sweet Shop y264, for £567 (Freer recorded paying only £208).

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 52) as 'Note in blue and opal – The Sun Cloud'.
• 1905: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 79).

In 1884, the critic of the Globe described this painting: 'Excellent ... in colour and keeping is the low-toned study of a green meadow with a row of cottages behind; but why does Mr. Whistler call it "The Sun Cloud" ? There is no suggestion of sunshine on the cloud or any part of the work.' ⁶ The Liverpool Mercury commented 'All these sketches show great executive ability, and, as usual with this artist's work, his colours seem to be laid on with a delightful appearance of ease.' ⁷ Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942), who had probably been there when it was painted, admired it:

'Beauty of handling and high finish will be specially noticed in the landscapes, principally Cornish, particularly 'Blue and gold – the Schooner'; 'Harmony in brown and gold – Old Chelsea Church'; Grey and silver mist'; and 'Blue and grey Unloading'; the most brilliant in colour being a 'Note in blue and opal – the Sun Cloud.' ⁸

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot be lent.

Bibliography

Catalogues Raisonnés

• Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 271), plate 184, as 'Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

EXHIBITION:

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 52) as 'Note in blue and opal – The Sun Cloud'.
• Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 79).

SALE:

• Christie's, London, 17 December 1904 (lot 40).

Newspapers 1855-1905

• Anon., 'Mr. Whistler's Exhibition', Globe, London, 20 May 1884, p. 6.
• Anon., 'Art Notes', Liverpool Mercury, London, 3 July 1884, p. 6.

Journals 1855-1905

• ‘An Enthusiast’, [Sickert, W. R.], 'Mr Whistler and His Art', The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, vol. 5, 1 June 1884, pp. 199-201.
• 'The "Romance" of Collecting', The Art Journal, 1905, p. 53.
• Anon., The Studio Whistler Portfolio, London, 1905 (ten colour reproductions), repr. pl. 2.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907, p. 38.
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, p. 391 n.3.
• Holden, Donald, Whistler Landscapes and Seascapes, New York, 1969, p. 59, pl. 19.
• Menpes, Mortimer, Whistler as I Knew Him, London, 1904, repr. p. 70.
• Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 171 (cat. no. 153).
• Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, p. 105.

Books, General

• Hoopes, Donelson F., The American Impressionists, New York, 1972, p. 26, pl. 4.
• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, p. 5.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948, p. 14 (04 31).
• Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 134, 294, pl. 38.
• Freer Gallery of Art, Gallery Book VIII, Washington, D.C., May 1923.

EXHIBITION:

• Selection of Art Objects from The Freer Collection, National Museum, Washington, DC, 1912 (cat. no. 10).
• Inaugural Exhibition, Toledo Museum of Art, 1912 (cat. no. 108).
• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, p. 39, 93.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1904.314a-c.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 330).

Other

• None.