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

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YMSM 282
The Angry Sea

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1884
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1904.76a-c
Medium: oil
Support: wood
Size: 12.4 x 21.7 cm (4 7/8 x 8 1/2")
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: none
Frame: replica Dowdeswell, American, W. Lewin, 2004
print

The Angry Sea

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

  • 'The Angry Sea' (1884, Dowdeswell). 1
  • ' "Angry Sea" - St. Ives' (1901, Whistler). 2

'The Angry Sea' is the original and accepted title.

Description

The Angry Sea, Freer Gallery of Art
The Angry Sea, Freer Gallery of Art

A view across a broad beach to the sea, in horizontal format. A thin line of dark blue sea in the distance is bounded by white breakers rolling into the shore. A steamship is on the horizon at right.

Site

Probably Porthmeor Beach, the longest and widest of the beaches to west of the harbour of St Ives, Cornwall.

Notes:

1: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 2).

2: Note by the artist on Cowan to Whistler, 25-6 February 190l, GUW #00743.

Last updated: 8th June 2021 by Margaret