Violet and Blue: The Little Bathers, Perros-Guirec was painted in the autumn of 1893.

It was originally thought to date from the autumn of 1888, when Whistler and his bride were in Brittany on their honeymoon. 1

Violet and Blue: The Little Bathers, Perros-Guirec, Fogg Art Museum

However, the butterfly signature indicates a much later date, in the early 1890s. The date of 1893 is confirmed by a letter from Whistler to D. C. Thomson in 1895: 'The little panel was painted in Brittany when we were there - at the same time as those last sea pieces exhibited the other day at the Champ de Mars.' 2 The Whistlers were in Brittany in September 1893, when Whistler painted Violet and Silver: A Deep Sea [YMSM 411], Dark Blue and Silver [YMSM 412], and Violet and Blue: Among the Rollers [YMSM 413] – which were the pictures shown at the Salon of the Champ de Mars in 1894.