The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Blue and Opal: Herring Fleet dates from Whistler's painting expedition to St Ives, Cornwall, from January to March 1884. ¹

There has been some confusion between the title and history of Blue and Opal: Herring Fleet and Pink and Opal: Harbour y272.

Images

Subject

Titles

Only one title is known, with varying punctuation:

• 'Blue and opal – Herring Fleet' (1884, Dowdeswell). ²
• 'Blue and Opal: Herring Fleet' (1980, YMSM). ³

Description

Presumably this showed the small fishing boats of the vast herring fleet at sea.

Site

St Ives, Cornwall.

Technique

Technique

Unknown.

Frame

Unknown.

History

Provenance

• 1884: bought by Miss van der Weyer – Louise Marie [Augusta?] van de Weyer (1851-1896) – of 10 De Vere Gardens, London.

It was bought from the Dowdeswell exhibition in 1884 by Miss van der Weyer, the sister of Lady Esher and daughter of Sylvain van de Weyer (1802-1874), one time Belgian minister of the Court of St James's. ⁴

Pink and Opal: Harbour, Colby College Museum of Art

The later history of this painting is not known, and has been confused with that of Pink and Opal: Harbour y272.

Exhibitions

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 48) as 'Blue and opal – Herring Fleet'.

Frederick Wedmore (1844-1921) praised the painting when it was exhibited in 1884: 'What a placid charm in that delicate, ghostly vision of the "Herring Fleet" (48)! Poetical, we should call it, only that to be poetical is to be literary'. ⁵

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. 273), plate 185, as 'Blue and Opal: Herring Fleet'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 48) as 'Blue and opal – Herring Fleet'.

Journals 1855-1905

• Wedmore, Frederick, ‘Mr Whistler's Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Gray’, The Academy, vol. 25, 24 May 1884, p. 374.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, pp. pp. 92-93.

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• 'The City Review article on the Fall 2007 American Paintings', website at http://www.thecityreview.com/f07samp.html.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 489).

Other

• None.