The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Marine: Blue and Grey was painted in the mid-1880s; it probably dates from Whistler's stay in St Ives in 1884, or shortly afterwards.

Marine: Blue and Grey, Colby College Museum of Art

It was once thought to date from the early 1890s, but the signature and dark colouration suggest the earlier date. ¹

It may have been among paintings exhibited in 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884, such as Sea and Storm: Grey and Green y283.

Images

Subject

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• Possibly 'Sea and Storm; grey and green' (1884, Dowdeswell). ²
• Possibly 'Vert et gris: L’Orage' (1887, Petit). ³
• 'Seascape' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). ⁴
• 'Marine; Blue and Gray' (1947, Macbeth). ⁵
• 'Marine: Blue and Grey' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

The early exhibitions titles, as given above, have not been confirmed.

The first published title, 'Seascape' (1904) was rejected in favour of the 1947 title 'Marine; Blue and Gray', which was adapted in the 1980 catalogue. The spelling was anglicised and punctuation altered: thus the preferred title is 'Marine: Blue and Grey'.

Description

Marine: Blue and Grey, Colby College Museum of Art

A seascape in horizontal format. It shows a dark stormy sea with rows of breakers rolling into a grey beach under a grey/blue cloudy sky. In the foreground at left is a grassy slope, and below it and to right (cut off by the edge of the panel) a row of small grey houses. On the beach behind the houses there appear to be clusters of people painted very roughly.

Site

Probably the fishing port of St Ives in Cornwall. It was surrounded by green hills and the houses were close together, on terraces and roads sloping steeply down to the sea. ⁷ A metal label on the painting, with no date or further details, reads 'Sands of Cornwall'.

Technique

Technique

Marine: Blue and Grey Colby College Museum of Art

The panel (possibly mahogany) appears to have been primed in light red plus some light tan and dark brown underpainting beneath the rollers on the left. The sea is painted in long pasty ribbons of deep turquoise blue, except at the horizon where it is carefully smoothed down to look like mist. ⁸ The houses and figures in the foreground are painted with curiously rough loose brushstrokes, and are difficult to understand.

Conservation History

It may have been painted while actually in a paint box, so that there is a narrow unpainted margin at left and right. There is some slight abrasion along the upper and lower edges, probably from the frame.

Frame

Marine: Blue and Grey, photograph, 1904

The photo reproduced above, taken in 1904, may show it in its original frame, possibly made for the Dowdeswell exhibition of 1884. It is now in a Whistlerian slope frame dating from the early 20th century. ⁹

History

Provenance

• 1898: sold by Goupil (Boussod Valadon & Cie), London art dealers, to Joshua Montgomery Sears (1854–1905), Boston;
• 1905: passed to his estate and possibly bequeathed to his widow, Sarah Carlisle Sears née Choate (1858-1935).
• 1943: sold by the Macbeth Galleries, New York, to Millicent Abigail Rogers (1902-1953) of Claremont, VA;
• 1953: bequeathed to her son Arturo Peralta Ramos (b. ca 1902-d. 2015), Jr.
• Date unknown: at some time with Warren Adelson (n/a), New York art dealer.
• 2013: given by Peter H. Lunder (b. 1933) and Paula Crane Lunder (b. 1935) to Colby College Museum of Art.

According to Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), a 'Marine', probably this, was sold by Goupil, London dealers, to one 'Sears' of Boston in 1898. ¹⁰ Sears was Joshua Montgomery Sears (1854–1905), who lent it to the Whistler memorial exhibition in Boston in 1904 (cat. no. 16) as 'Seascape'. He died in the following year and it is likely that the painting was inherited by his wife Sarah Carlisle Sears, a noted collector, artist and photographer. They had two children, Joshua Montgomery Sears (1879-1908) and Helen (1889-1966), who married James Donald Cameron Bradley (1883-1956) in 1913. The painting could have been inherited by Sarah or Helen Sears and sold between 1935 and 1943.

The painting was acquired by the Macbeth Galleries by 1943 and sold by them in that August to Millicent Abigail Rogers, Standard Oil heiress, daughter of Henry Huddleston Rogers, who married (1) Count L. C. Salm (2) A. Peralta Ramos (3) R. B. Balcom. The painting was bequeathed to her son by her second marriage, Arturo Peralta Ramos, Jr.

Exhibitions

• 1884: Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 36) as 'Sea and Storm; grey and green'.
• 1887: Possibly Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 213) as 'Vert et gris: L’Orage'.
• 1904: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 16) as 'Seascape'.

Although it may have been Sea and Storm: Grey and Green y283, which has not been located, no reviews have been found that might help confirm this identification.

Marine: Blue and Grey, photograph, 1904

A photo of the Boston memorial exhibition, a detail of which is reproduced above, confirms that it was the work exhibited in 1904.

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. 410), plate 275, as 'Marine: Blue and Grey'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Possibly 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 36) as 'Sea and Storm; grey and green'.
• Possibly Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (cat. no. 213) as 'Vert et gris: L’Orage'.
• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 16) as 'Seascape'.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• None.

Books, General

• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'Collecting Whistler', in Paula Lunder et al., The Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College, Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, 2013, pp. 109-143, at p. 140, repr. p. 143.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

• Paula Lunder et al., The Lunder Collection: A Gift of Art to Colby College, Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME, 2013, p. 140, repr. p. 143.

EXHIBITION:

• Oils, Water-colors, Drawings and Prints by James McNeill Whistler, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1934.
• Whistler Loan Exhibition, Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1947 (cat. no. 30) as 'Marine; Blue and Gray'.
• Spink, Nesta, Whistler: The Later Years, University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, 1978 (cat. no. 46).
• Dorment, Richard, and Margaret F. MacDonald, James McNeill Whistler, Tate Gallery, London, Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1994-1995 (cat. no. 152).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Colby College Museum of Art website at https://www.colby.edu/museum.

Unpublished

• None.

Other

• None.