Technique

Black and Emerald: Coal Mine, Freer Gallery of Art

The paint is thin and the pale grey undercoat is visible, particularly at the bottom of the panel.

This fine, almost miniature, work was painted with fluid strokes of a tiny sable brush. It was probably completed in one session, with the colours painted into each other while still wet – so that some of the struts of the abandoned mine-workings are conveyed by washing away the details behind, rather in the manner of watercolour painting.

Conservation History

Frame

Black and Emerald: Coal Mine, Freer Gallery of Art

Small Dowdeswell frame, made for Whistler's one-man exhibition in 1884 [11.1 cm]. 1