The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Blue and Gold: The Schooner probably dates from late 1883 or early 1884.

Blue and Gold: The Schooner, Private Collection

It was first exhibited in 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 32). The butterfly signature was added much later, in 1897. ¹

It is now believed that Blue and Gold: The Schooner is the same picture as Green and Gold: The Sloop y368.

Images

Subject

Titles

Suggested titles are as follows:

• 'Blue and gold – The Schooner' (1884, Dowdeswell). ²
• '… Gold - / the Sloop' (1890s, Whistler). ³
• 'The Sloop' (1891, Whistler). ⁴
• 'Vert et Argent, la chaloupe' (1891, Whistler). ⁵
• 'Green & Gold, The Sloop' (1897, Whistler). ⁶
• 'The Sloop' (1904, Miss A. B. Jennings). ⁷
• 'The Schooner' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). ⁸
• 'The Sloop' (1905, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts). ⁹
• 'Blue and Gold: The Schooner' (1980, YMSM). ¹⁰

Despite the variations in title, it appears that Blue and Gold: The Schooner y276 and Green and Gold: The Sloop y368 (which was also exhibited as 'Vert et Argent, la chaloupe') are the same painting. A 'chaloupe' is a boat or launch; a sloop is a small boat with a single mast, and a single head sail or jib; and a schooner is a sailing ship with two or more masts fore and aft rigged throughout; topsail and staysail schooners show slight variations in rigging.

Blue and Gold: The Schooner does appear to show a schooner and this is the original and preferred title.

Description

Blue and Gold: The Schooner, Private Collection

A two-masted boat is seen at left, sitting high up, beyond a sloping grassy field. To right of it are the roofs of several houses and huts, possibly smoke-houses. The sky is cloudy, with patches of pale blue. In the right foreground stand three women.

Site

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

Blue and Gold: The Schooner, Private Collection

Probably St Ives, Cornwall. Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud y271 shows a similar row of small houses above a field, but without the ship.

Silvery Light, Photograph, 'Silvery Light Sailing'

Ships built on the shore at St Ives included the two-masted fishing boat Silvery Light built by William Robert Williams and launched on 10 July 1884. ¹¹

Technique

Technique

Blue and Gold: The Schooner, Private Collection

Painted freely, with expressive brushwork and thin paint. A comparatively broad, rounded brush was used for the sky and foreground, a smaller one for the houses and a very fine brush for the detail of the ship. It was signed with the butterfly at a later date.

Conservation History

Unknown. It is slightly abraded at the edges from the mount or frame (when working on site, Whistler often used a small box with slots to hold his wet panels). The varnish is very slightly yellowed.

Frame

The picture was framed by Frederick Henry Grau (1859-1892) in London. The backboard has a pen and ink butterfly that appears to date from the 1890s.

History

Provenance

• 1897: sold by Whistler to Siegfried Bing (1838-1905);
• By 1904: Annie Burr Jennings (1855-1939), New York and Fairfield, Connecticut;
• 1939: probably passed by family descent to her sister Emma Brewster Jennings, Mrs Hugh Dudley Auchincloss (1861-1942);
• 1942 or earlier: passed to her daughter Janet Lee Auchincloss-Morris (Mrs John V. Bouvier III, Mrs Hugh D. Auchincloss, 1907-1989), Newport, RI;
• 1989: on her death, passed to her estate;
• 1990: sold at auction, Christie's, New York, 23 May 1990 (lot 43);
• 1990-2022: private collection, Washington, DC;
• 2022: with Sotheby's, New York.

Despite the disparity in the title, it is likely that Blue and Gold: The Schooner y276 is Green and Gold: The Sloop y368, which was formerly catalogued as 'whereabouts unknown'. ¹²

Around August 1891 Whistler listed 'The Sloop' at 140 guineas. ¹³ In 1891 the Paris branch of the Goupil Gallery requested, through the London art dealer David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), some works by Whistler, and he responded in September 1891 with a priced list including 'Vert et Argent, la chaloupe' at £120.0.0. ¹⁴

It was probably the same small oil, 'La chaloupe', that was returned from the Goupil's Paris office to Thomson in 1893 so that he could show it to another art dealer, Edmund F. Deprez (1851-1915). ¹⁵ In the following year, Whistler asked Thomson to return it to him in Paris:

'By the way you have that little oil painting of the green field, with a sloop in the docks? - It still has on the frame the title in French: "La Shaloupe" [sic] - You are not doing anything with it - and it had better come over to me again.' ¹⁶

A slightly blurred butterfly signature on the backboard dates from the late 1890s, possibly done when it was sold or exhibited.

It was probably the same small oil painting, with the title slightly altered to 'Green & Gold, The Sloop', that was sold by the artist to Siegfried Bing, a collector and dealer in Oriental art, at his Galleries, 22 rue de Provence, Paris, 19 May 1897, for £200.0.0. ¹⁷ It was immediately sold, and was signed at the client's request, as Whistler wrote to Bing: 'I have acceeded [sic] to the request of your client and signed the little picture - Pray say to him with my compliments, that I shall be glad to know into whose care goes "The Sloop".' ¹⁸ It is not known if the client was male or whether Whistler just assumed that it was. The client could have been Miss A. B. Jennings herself or an agent acting for her. However, it is not known exactly where and when Miss Jennings acquired the painting. She was well travelled - she had applied for a passport on 2 April 1894, when she was living at 48 Park Avenue, New York - but it is not known if she visited Europe in 1897 or later. By 1904 the painting was definitely known as both 'The Sloop' and 'The Schooner', and it was owned by Mss Jennings. It is now known by its original title, Blue and Gold: The Schooner y276.

Exhibitions

• 1884: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 32) as 'Blue and gold – The Schooner'.
• 1884: Annual Exhibition of Sketches, Pictures & Photography: A Loan Collection of Pictures by Mr Whistler ..., Dublin Sketching Club, Dublin, 1884 (cat. no. 252) as 'Blue and gold – The Schooner'.
• 1887: Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 195) as 'Blue et argent: La Chaloupe aux docks'.
• 1890: Exposition Générale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1890 (cat. no. 844a) as 'La chaloupe'.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 77) as 'The Schooner'.

In 1884, a review by Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) praised this among several oils noted for their 'Beauty of handling and high finish.' ¹⁹

On the verso of the backboard are several labels and inscriptions including the numbers 'No 32 y' or 'g' and a slightly illegible number that could read 'No 32 y' or 'g'. Numbers written in this form could refer to works exhibited in 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884, 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886, or “Notes” – “Harmonies” – “Nocturnes”, H. Wunderlich & Co., New York, 1889.

In 1884, at Dowdeswell's, cat. no. 32 was 'Blue and gold – The Schooner'. Although there are some alternative options, ²⁰ it is now assumed that this 1884 exhibition included the work in question it is indeed Blue and Gold – The Schooner.

Another label on the backboard of the painting is that for the 1904 Boston Memorial Exhibition, when the work was lent by Miss Jennings, and her title, 'The Sloop', written on a label on the verso, conflicts with the title 'The Schooner' given in the catalogue! Furthermore, a memorandum that is enclosed in a copy of the Boston Memorial Exhibition catalogue gives the size of the painting as 4 ½ x 6 ½ inches, which is not correct, and the support as canvas (it is actually wood). ²¹

Blue and Gold: The Schooner y276 is undoubtedly by Whistler but its exhibition history remains to be completely clarified.

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. 276) as 'Blue and Gold: The Schooner'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 32) as 'Blue and gold – The Schooner'.
• Annual Exhibition of Sketches, Pictures & Photography: A Loan Collection of Pictures by Mr Whistler ..., Dublin Sketching Club, Dublin, 1884 (cat. no. 252) as 'Blue and gold – The Schooner'.
• Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 195) as 'Blue et argent: La Chaloupe aux docks'.
• Exposition Générale des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1890 (cat. no. 844a) as 'La chaloupe'.
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 77) as 'The Schooner'.
• 100th Anniversary Exhibition, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, 1905 (cat. no. 423) as 'The Sloop'.

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.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, p. 5.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Myers, Kenneth John, Mr. Whistler’s Gallery: Pictures at an 1884 Exhibition, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2003, pp. 14, 90, repr. p. 33.

SALE:

• Christie's, New York, 23 May 1990 (Lot 43).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• None.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 405, 406a).

Other

• None.