Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

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Symphony in White and Red

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

  • 'Symphony in White and Red' (1903, R. Birnie Philip) 1
  • 'Symphony in White and Red' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). 2
  • 'No. 4 Symphony in White and Red' (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). 3
  • 'Symphony in White and Red' (1980, YMSM). 4

The White Symphony: Three Girls [YMSM 087] had been exhibited with the title 'Symphony in White and Red' in 1874 and 1887-1888) but this has been altered to avoid confusion.

'Symphony in White and Red' is the preferred title.

Description

Symphony in White and Red, Freer Gallery of Art
Symphony in White and Red, Freer Gallery of Art

A figure composition in horizontal format. Several woman in draped robes stand or sit on a balcony beside the sea. Two or three figures at left, ascending the steps, are indicated very roughly indeed. The central figure, descending the steps, wears a white robe and a pale mauve or blue scarf that blows upwards to the left, behind her; she has a pale purple head-band round her light brown hair. Just to right of centre, a seated woman in a pink robe holds up a red fan. In the lower right foreground there is another figure, sitting on the ground, very roughly indicated.

Sitter

Unidentified.

Notes:

1: Letter to C. L. Freer of 14 December 1903, Freer Gallery Archives.

2: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 20).

3: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 14).

4: YMSM 1980 [more], (cat. no. 85).

Last updated: 23rd November 2020 by Margaret