Provenance

• Unknown.

The Sea, Montclair Art Museum

The only thing known about the history of this painting is that it was lent by Whistler to an exhibition in Pittsburgh in 1900. There are several pictures that could possibly have been available. It is not known when Green and Grey. Channel [YMSM 069] was bought by John Howard Whittemore (1837-1910), but it was in the USA by 1905. On the other hand, although is not known when Alexander Young (1828–1907) bought Sea and Rain [YMSM 065], it is unlikely that it went to the USA.

Green and Silver: The Great Sea, The Hunterian

There are more likely candidates among Whistler's later works. Whistler himself owned Green and Silver: The Great Sea [YMSM 518], which is reproduced above. He could have sent it to Pittsburgh before he lent it to the 3rd Exhibition, Pictures, Drawings, Prints and Sculptures, International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers, Galleries of the Royal Institute, London, 1901 in October. The Sea, Pourville [YMSM 520] and The Shore, Pourville [YMSM 521] were also with Whistler, and would have been available.

The Sea, Pourville, Terra Foundation for American Art

The Shore, Pourville, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Less likely candidates for exhibition in 1900 are The Sea, Pourville, No. 1 [YMSM 516] and The Sea, Pourville, No. 2 [YMSM 519], both acquired at some time unknown by Alexander Arnold Hannay (1858-1927), but probably in London; Grey and Gold: High Tide at Pourville [YMSM 523] and Blue and Silver: Boat Entering Pourville [YMSM 524], both sold in May 1900 by Whistler to David Croal Thomson (1855-1930) of Goupil's; and Grey and Silver: Pourville [YMSM 522], delivered for Whistler by Charles Lang Freer (1856-1919) to William Herbert Bixby (1849-1928) in 1902.

Exhibitions

• 1900: Fifth Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1900-1901 (cat. no. 259) as ‘Trouville Beach’.

Whistler himself lent this oil to the Pittsburgh exhibition, which took place in November and December 1900.