Titles

Possible titles include:

• 'Gold and Orange – The Neighbours' (1901, ISSPG). 1
• 'Rose et or: Les Voisines' (1902, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts). 2
• 'Neighbours' (1903, T. McLean). 3
• 'The Neighbours' (1903, Whistler). 4
• 'Brown & Gold The Neighbours' (1903, anon.). 5
• 'Gold and Orange: The Neighbours' (1980, YMSM). 6

The original ISSPG title of 1901 'Gold and Orange: The Neighbours' is generally accepted.

Description

A street scene in vertical format. It focusses on the ground floor of a house, with windows either side of a dark door, which has a skylight above it, and the lower part of a balcony above. A woman is just visible standing within the doorway, wearing a white bonnet and apron over a voluminous skirt. Another woman stands on the doorstep, at right, her arms crossed. She is similarly dressed, with a dark greenish-blue scarf at her neck, a white apron over her rosy pink skirt. The women's features are not clear. Several pale pink and dark grey items, possibly clothes or bed-linen, are hung over the balcony to air.

Site

Unknown.

Sitter

Unknown.

Comments

The painting conveys a subdued, intimate realism. Denys Sutton (1917-1991) commented on its 'Mallarméan allusiveness': 'Whistler appears to hint at inner meanings and to provide the stuff for interpretation; thus, a strange hallucinatory atmosphere is suggested by the presence of the two old women.' 7