The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

The Seashore probably dates from between 1884 and 1885. ¹

The Seashore, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The technique and the butterfly signature suggest this date.

Images

Subject

Titles

Suggested titles include :

• 'The Seashore' (1905, ISSPG). ²
• 'Green and Grey' (1918, Christie's). ³
• 'Green and Grey: the Seashore' (1919, D. C. Thomson). ⁴
• 'Green and Grey: The Seashore' (1970, Sotheby's). ⁵
• 'The Seashore' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

Whistler's original title is not known. Later titles suggest a 'Whistlerian' title but the current authors agree with the 1980 catalogue that 'The Seashore', the original published title of 1905, is preferable.

Description

The Seashore, Minneapolis Institute of Arts

A seascape in horizontal format, with three women walking along the shoreline, and several small rowing-boats and sailboats – possibly fishing boats – moored in the water. The sea is pale green, the sky an even paler grey.

Site

Possibly Dieppe on the French coast, a busy port and tourist destination.

Technique

Technique

The Seashore ,Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The panel was primed in grey, with three horizontal bands of colour painted in long, horizontal brushworks, punctuated by the tiny figures and boats. To left of the two women at the water's edge there are indications of a further figure. A very fine pointed brush was used for the expressive fine lines of the boats and their rigging.

The Minneapolis Institute of Arts website commented:

'Pigments almost the sheerness of a glaze stroked subtly onto the surface of a panel is a hallmark of James Whistler's technique. In The Seashore three bands of color serve as visual shorthand for shore, sea and sky. Each stroke of the ships and figures, as well as the artist's butterfly monogram at bottom right, are distinct elements justified only by their role in achieving perfect balance within the composition. Whistler realized that small oils like The Seashore would run counter to conventions about the size and degree of finish expected for an exhibition picture at that period. He relished the prospect of the ruckus they would create. One critic was charmed, however, and dubbed them "pygmy pictures" with "big souls." ' ⁷

Conservation History

Unknown.

Frame

Outer frame: 33.66 x 39.37 cm (13 1/4 x 15 1/2").

According to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 'The frame is a period reproduction of a design that Whistler created specifically for his little oils to emphasize their aesthetic importance and, undoubtedly, their degree of presence overall.' ⁸

History

Provenance

• By 1905: Sir William Eden (1849-1915), London;
• 1918: sold at auction, Eden sale, Christie's, London, 1 March 1918 (lot 164) as 'Green and Grey', and bought by Sampson, London art dealer;
• 1919: Barbizon House, London art dealers;
• 1919/1920: Sir Patrick Ford MP (1880-1945);
• 1945: bequeathed to Ford's daughter Marjorie Elaine Ford (Mrs Alan Murray) (b. 1913);
• 1970: sold by her at auction, Sotheby's, London, 22 April 1970 (lot 204) as 'Green and Grey: The Seashore', and bought by Williams & Son, for £1800, on behalf of Ira Spanierman (n/a), New York art dealer;
• 1974: sold at auction, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 23 May 1974 (lot 41c), bought in;
• 1978: sold to Davis & Long, New York art dealers, December 1978;
• 1979: sold by Davis & Long to Dr John Larkin (n/a), White Bear Lake, Minnesota, in June 1979;
• 2009: given by Dr John and Colles Larkin and the John R. Van Derlip Fund to the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.

At the Eden sale it was bought by Sampson for £189.0.0, according to David Croal Thomson (1855-1930); as 'Green and Grey: the Seashore', it was with Thomson's firm, Barbizon House, by 1919. It was owned shortly afterwards by Sir Patrick Ford and passed by family succession to his grand-daughter, Mrs M. E. Murray, who sold it at auction.

Exhibitions

• 1886: possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (not identified).
• 1905: 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. 104) as 'The Seashore'.

It was almost certainly exhibited in the 1886 Whistler exhibition at Messrs Dowdeswell, but it has not been identified under any of the recorded titles.

It was lent by Sir William Eden to the Whistler memorial exhibition in London in 1905.

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. 297) as 'The Seashore'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (not identified).
• 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. 104) as 'The Seashore'.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The works of James McNeill Whistler, New York, 1913, p. 222 (cat. no. 447).

Books, General

• Wilson, Philip (ed.), Art at Auction, Sotheby's and Parke-Bernet 1969-70, London 1970, repr. p. 124.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITION:

• Spink, Nesta, Whistler: The Later Years, University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, 1978 (checklist, cat. no. 53).
• Eitner, Lorenz (intro.) and Betsy G. Fryberger, Whistler: Themes and Variations, Stanford University Museum of Art, Stanford, 1978 (cat. no. 58).

SALE:

• Eden sale, Christie's, London, 1 March 1918 (lot 164) as 'Green and Grey'.
• Sotheby's, London, 22 April 1970 (lot 204) as 'Green and Grey: The Seashore'.
• Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 23 May 1974 (lot 41c).

Journals 1906-Present

• Thomson, David Croal, Barbizon House: An Illustrated Record, London, 1919 (cat. no. 26) repr. as 'Green and Grey: the Seashore' .

Websites

• Minneapolis Institute of Arts website at https://collections.artsmia.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 411).

Other

• None.