The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers, Detroit Institute of Arts

This painting, at one time known only from exhibition records as Study of the Sea from a Boat, has been identified as Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers y413, which dates from 1893. ¹

Images

History

Provenance

• By 1904: owned by Mary Brimmer (1827-1906) (Mrs Martin Brimmer, née Mary Ann Timmins, d. 1905);
• 1905: passed by family descent to a private collection;
• 2006: sold at auction, Cottone Auction House, Mount Morris 7 July 2006 and bought by Thomas Colville on behalf of the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Mrs Brimmer, the first named owner, died in 1905. According to her executors, Welch & Forbes of Boston, who were trustees of her estate, a 'Small marine by Whistler' was listed in an undated list among 'Articles borrowed by the Museum from other heirs' of Mrs Brimmer. The painting remained in the family for may years until sold in 2006. See Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers y413

Exhibitions

• 1904 :Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 13) as 'Study of the Sea from a boat'. ²

In a catalogue of the 1904 Boston exhibition, originally owned by Frank Gair Macomber (1849-1941) and now in the Boston Public Library, the title is given as 'The Sea', and it was described as 'Dark green sea with gray & blue sky' and valued at $2500.

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. 517) as 'Study of the Sea from a Boat'.

Catalogues 1855-1905

• Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 13) as 'Study of the Sea from a boat'.

Journals 1906-Present

• MacDonald, Margaret F., 'A Rediscovered Whistler: “Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers” ’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. 149, 2007, pp. 261-62.