Provenance

• 1900: sold by the artist to David Croal Thomson (1855-1930), of the Goupil Gallery, London;
• 1901/1904: James Staats Forbes (1823-1904), London;
• 1904: Obach & Co., London art dealers;
• 1904: bought by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919), Detroit;
• 1919: bequeathed by C. L. Freer to the Freer Gallery of Art.

In 1900 Whistler sold ' "Grey & Gold - The high sea", Pourville' to D. C. Thomson for 150 guineas. This was probably Grey and Gold: High Tide at Pourville although the term 'high sea' could mean a stormy sea rather than high tide. 1 It is not known when exactly J. S. Forbes bought or sold his two seascapes, Grey and Gold: High Tide at Pourville [YMSM 523] or Blue and Silver: Boat Entering Pourville [YMSM 524].

In 1904 Freer noted that a 'Marine - grey, late, one man on beach, boat in distance' from the collection of J. S. Forbes was with Obach's in London, and he left an offer for it. 2 In July 1904 he bought it for £220 (200 plus 10 per cent commission).

Exhibitions

• 1901: Spring Exhibition, Goupil Gallery, London, 1901 (cat. no. 32) as 'Grey and Gold – High Tide at Pourville'.

Arthur Philips praised the painting in 1901, but was unable to resist a little dig at Whistler's 'eccentricities':

'The Whistlers too are exquisite, "Grey and Gold, High Tide at Pourville" is as fine a bit of landscape as we remember to have seen by him. It is in such pictures as this that he shows what a consummate master he is in spite of his eccentricities.' 3

By the terms of C. L. Freer's bequest to the Freer Gallery of Art, the painting cannot be lent to another venue.