Provenance

Unknown.

Exhibitions

• 1886: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Second Series, Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1886 (cat. no. 65) as 'Nocturne in grey and gold – Chelsea Fish Shop'.

The price was estimated by Dowdeswell at £50 but this was doubled by Whistler to £100, so he obviously thought highly of it. 1 It was described in the Saturday Review on 22 May 1886 as 'a supposed rendering of lights on a foggy night, [which] unfortunately prejudices people against the sketchiness of manner which is used with such judgement and true effect in other instances.' 2 It received a marginally more appreciative comment in the Dundee Evening Telegraph on 27 May 1886:

'Mr Whistler has been undervalued a little too much. He can draw and he can paint when he likes; and in that case he may surely describe a girl with crimson cap as" a note in flesh-colour and red", or Chelsea fish-shop as "a nocturne in grey and gold", if it pleases him to do so.'