Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

• 'Green and Violet: The Evening Walk, Dieppe' (1896, The Academy). 1
• 'Green and Violet, The Evening Walk, Dieppe' (1897, D. C. Thomson). 2
• Probably 'Vert et violet' (1897, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). 3
• 'Dieppe' (1905, ISSPG). 4
• 'Dieppe' (1908, Pennell). 5
• 'Shore near Dublin' [sic] (1921, Pennell). 6
• 'Dieppe Beach' (1934, Christie's). 7
• 'Green and Violet: The Evening Walk, Dieppe' (1980, YMSM). 8

The Pennells reproduced it correctly in 1908 as 'Dieppe', but in 1921 called it 'Shore near Dublin' and stated that it was in the Freer Gallery of Art (being mistaken on both counts). 9

The preferred title is 'Green and Violet: The Evening Walk, Dieppe'.

Description

Green and Violet: The Evening Walk, Dieppe, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art

A beach scene in horizontal format. In the middle distance groups of figures are walking on the beach, and along the distant shoreline. A few sailing boats are on the blue sea. The beach is a dull yellow ochre, with patches of grass in the foreground.

Site

Dieppe, a busy port and ferry terminal on the coast of France.

Comments

Crystal Bridges website comments;

'Whistler created numerous small panel paintings, such as this one, using extremely diluted oil paint to create thin, delicate washes of color. He called these works "Notes," and placed them in large gilded frames of his own design to assert their importance despite their diminutive size. At first glance, this scene of people promenading at the fashionable French beach resort of Dieppe resembles work by the Impressionists, who often portrayed the middle class at play. However, Whistler foregrounded "green and violet" in his title for the work, suggesting that the harmonious blending of color was his focus, rather than the narrative component of the evening walk. Green and Violet: The Evening Walk is one of a small number of works resulting from a trip Whistler took to Dieppe in 1896, hoping to recuperate from the depression he experienced following his wife’s death.' 10