The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler

Date

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland dates from Whistler's visit to Sutton, near Dublin, from August to September 1900. ¹

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, Hunter Museum of American Art

'Sea piece: Dublin Bay' was listed by Whistler’s sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), in Whistler’s studio on 16 February 1901. ²

Images

Subject

Titles

Suggested titles include:

• ' "Golden Bay" – Ireland' (1903, Whistler). ³
• 'Gray & Gold – The Golden Bay' (1903, Whistler). ⁴
• 'Gray and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). ⁵
• 'Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland' (1980, YMSM). ⁶

With modified spelling and punctuation, 'Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland' is the preferred title.

Description

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, Hunter Museum of American Art

A view across a bay, in horizontal format. Across the foreground is the curve of a shingle beach, with a few rocks, and in the distance, a low green promontory stretches across the horizon. The far side of the bay is nearly lost in warm-tinted shades of grey and deep turquoise. The sky is pale blue and turquoise with scattered clouds. The rays of the setting sun touch the ship and the clouds with a golden glow.

Site

Painted at Sutton, near Dublin, Ireland and probably listed as ‘Sea piece: Dublin Bay’ by Whistler’s sister-in-law, Miss R. Birnie Philip, in Whistler’s studio on 16 February 1901. ⁷

Walter Armstrong (1850-1918), then director of the National Gallery of Ireland, told the Pennells that Whistler took a house, ‘Craigie ... at Sutton, six miles from Dublin, on the spit of sand which connects the Hill of Howth with the mainland ... on the north side of Dublin Bay’; the Pennells mention that the visit was a failure: ‘The house was on the wrong side of the Bay, the weather was wretched.’ ⁸

Technique

Technique

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, Hunter Museum of American Art

The panel is painted with long flowing brushstrokes of creamy textured paint. The pale grey priming remains visible and forms a unifying base colour.

Conservation History

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, Hunter Museum of American Art

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, photograph, 1960

It was cleaned by Harry R. H. Woolford (National Galleries of Scotland) for Agnew's, London, in 1960. ⁹ There appear to be slight abrasions at the edges, possibly caused by the frame.

Frame

28.3 x 37.8 cm (11 1/8 x 14 7/8").

History

Provenance

• 1903: sold by Whistler to Richard Albert Canfield (1855-1914), New York;
• 1914: sold by Canfield to Knoedler, New York dealers;
• 1914: sold by Knoedler's to Henry Clay Frick (1849-1919), New York.
• Date unknown: owned by Mildred, Mrs H. K. S. Williams (1873-1939), San Francisco.
• 1946: sold by Knoedler’s to Prew Savoy (d. 1956), attorney, Washington, DC.
• 1956/1960: with Norton Galleries, New York.
• 1960: sold by a client through Newhouse Galleries, New York, to Agnew, London dealers;
• 1960: with Lawrence A. Fleischman (ca 1926-d. 1997), New York art dealer;
• By 1961: owned by Irving Frederick Burton (1918-1911), Huntington Woods, Michigan;
• 1972: sold by Burton, at auction, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 18 October 1972 (lot 32), and bought by D. B. James (dates unknown), Signal Mount, Tennessee, on behalf of Scott L. Probasco, Jr., Chattanooga;
• 1981: given by Scott Livingston Probasco, Jr (1928-2015) to the Hunter Museum of American Art.

It was seen by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) in Whistler’s studio in 1902 and sold by Whistler to R. A. Canfield in 1903. ¹⁰

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, photograph, Knoedler's

After being sold by Canfield to Knoedler's on 12 March 1914, it was immediately sold to H. C. Frick. There are several gaps in the provenance thereafter. According to Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, it was later owned by Mrs H. K. S. Williams. The next dated record is 1946, when Knoedler’s sold it to the attorney Prew Savoy, although it was lent in Knoedler's name to the Whistler Loan Exhibition, Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1947 (cat. no. 3).

Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, photo

After another gap in its history, it was sold through the Newhouse Galleries to Agnew's on 22 February 1960, and by them to Lawrence A. Fleischman on 5 July 1960. It was probably sold by Fleischman to Dr Irving F. Burton, who certainly owned it by 1961, and sold it through Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 18 October 1972 (lot 32), when it was bought by D. B. James for $15,000, on behalf of Scott L. Probasco, Jr.

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. 78) as ‘Gray and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland’.

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. 537), plate 358, as 'Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland'.

Authored by Whistler

• None.

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. 78) as ‘Gray and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland’.

Journals 1855-1905

• None.

Monographs

• None.

Books on Whistler

• Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 2, pp. 258-59.
• Sutton, Denys, James McNeill Whistler: Paintings, Etchings, Pastels and Watercolours, London, 1966, repr. pl. 119.

Books, General

• None.

Catalogues 1906-Present

EXHIBITIONS:

• Oils, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings by James McNeill Whistler lent by Mr. Richard Canfield, Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, Buffalo, 1911 (cat. no. 6), repr. p. 16.
• Oils, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings by J. McN. Whistler, Knoedler & Co., New York, 1914 (cat. no. 5).
• Whistler Loan Exhibition, Macbeth Gallery, New York, 1947 (cat. no. 3).
• The Dr and Mrs Irving F. Burton Collection of American Art, 1860-1969, Flint, Michigan, 1961 (cat. no. 18).
• American Painting 1860-1960, Institute of Arts, Flint, Michigan, 1961.
• American Paintings and Drawings in Michigan Collections, Detroit Institute of Arts, 1962.
• Spink, Nesta, Whistler: The Later Years, University of Michigan Art Gallery, Ann Arbor, 1978 (cat. no. 54) checklist.
• Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, pp. 132-33 (cat. no. 14).

SALES:

• Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, 18 October 1972 (lot 32).

Journals 1906-Present

• None.

Websites

• Hunter Museum website at http://emuseum.huntermuseum.org.

Unpublished

• Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 432).

Other

• None.