Technique

White and Grey: La Cour de l'hôtel, Dieppe, Fogg Art Museum

Paint was applied thinly on a dark grey primed panel. The dark tonality of the colours is barely lightened by a little scattered foliage and the pastel shades of the figures, which are painted with distinctly separate strokes of a rounded brush, in paint of a thick creamy-consistency, each stroke being pressed down, squeezing the paint out, and leaving a slight ridge of paint along the edge of each stroke. The brushwork around the door appears rather uncertain.

Conservation History

White and Grey: La Cour de l'hôtel, Dieppe, photograph, 1980

The paint has darkened so that the painting now appears predominantly dark grey.

Frame

White and Grey: La Cour de l'hôtel, Dieppe, framed

Grau-style, made in America by M. Grieve, 1930/1940s [8.3 cm]. 1

White and Grey: La Cour de l'hôtel, Dieppe, framed

37.8 x 28.6 x 4.5 cm (14 7/8 x 11 1/4 x 1 ¾").

There are inscriptions on the back of the panel (not the frame): 'Whistler.', 'No. 10' crossed out in pencil, 'No. 30 Y', upside down: 'HR/2767'. The form of the inscription 'No. 30 Y' confirms the identification of the painting as having been exhibited at Wunderlich's in 1889 (cat. no. 30).