Provenance

• 1901: bought from the artist by Hon. Judge William Thomas Evans (1843-1918), New Jersey.
• 1916: with Scott & Fowles, New York art dealers;
• 1917: sold by Scott & Fowles to Hunt Henderson (1869-1939) and his wife, New Orleans;
• 1939: his bequest to Tulane University, New Orleans;
• 1941: sold in April through the Macdonald Gallery to Grenville Lindell Winthrop (1864-1943);
• 1943: his bequest to the Fogg Art Museum.

It was probably this painting that Whistler offered on 5 June 1898 Whistler to the New York dealer, Edward Guthrie Kennedy (1849-1932):

'And here I went and signed, and put the finishing touches upon, the little marine of Etretat for you - And you say no more about it - It is now a little beauty! -

Do you not want it? ... Tomorrow morning you can come to the studio at 11.30 ... You can then see the little sea piece - and settle things.' 1

However, Kennedy did not buy it. On 19 February 1901, while Whistler was away in Corsica, 'Beaching the boat Etretat (Blue & Silver)' was listed by his sister-in-law, Rosalind Birnie Philip (1873-1958), among pictures received from Hinde Street on the closure of the 'Company of the Butterfly' and sent to William Heinemann (1863-1920), the London publisher. 2 It may possibly have been one of the pictures referred to by Whistler in a cryptic letter to Heinemann at that time, 'It was very nice of you to see to all that about the little marines with Fox for me.' 3 It does not seem to have belonged to Heinemann but he may have been an intermediary in the sale. According to the Studio, the painting was bought from Whistler in that same year, 1901, by Judge William Evans. 4

Exhibitions

• Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late James McNeill Whistler, First President of The International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, New Gallery, Regent Street, London, 1905 (cat. no. 55) as 'A Harmony in Blue and Silver'.

It would have been on view in Whistler's sale outlet, 'The Company of the Butterfly', in 1901, but was not, as far as is known, exhibited otherwise in Whistler's lifetime.