Detail from The Canal, Amsterdam, 1889, James McNeill Whistler, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

 

Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony

Catalogues Raisonnés

  • Young, Andrew McLaren, Margaret F. MacDonald, Robin Spencer, and Hamish Miles, The Paintings of James McNeill Whistler, New Haven and London, 1980 (cat. no. 56), as 'Variations in Flesh Colour and Green: The Balcony', plates 52, 373.

Authored by Whistler

  • Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 40).
  • Goupil Gallery and James McNeill Whistler, Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces [portfolio of photographs published after the Goupil Gallery Exhibition, March-April 1892], London, 1892, repr. pl. 7.

Catalogues 1855-1905

  • 102nd Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1870 (cat. no. 468) as 'The Balcony'.
  • [Exposition], Galerie Durand-Ruel, Paris, 1873.
  • II Summer Exhibition, Grosvenor Gallery, London, 1878 (cat. no. 54) as 'Variations in Flesh-Colour and Green'.
  • Blackburn, Henry, Grosvenor Notes, London, 1878, pp. 20-21.
  • Exposition Universelle, Champs de Mars, Paris, 1889 (British section, cat. no. 166) as 'Le Balcon; – harmonie couleur chair et couleur verte'.
  • Nocturnes, Marines & Chevalet Pieces, Goupil Gallery, London, 1892 (cat. no. 40) as 'Harmony in Flesh Colour and Green – The Balcony'.
  • Retrospective Exhibition, Society of American Artists, New York, 1892 (cat. no. 358).
  • Second Annual Exhibition, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1897 (cat. no. 236) as 'The Balcony – Variations in flesh color and green'.
  • Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, 1901 (cat. no. 100) as 'Variations in Flesh Color and Green – The Balcony'.
  • Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, 1902.
  • Twenty-fifth Annual Exhibition, Society of American Artists, New York, 1903.
  • Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 57) as 'Variations in Flesh Color and Green – The Balcony'.
  • Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 10) as 'Variations en couleur chair et en vert. Le Balcon – (Variations in Flesh Colour and Green. The Balcony).

Newspapers 1855-1905

  • Anon., 'Royal Academy of Arts. First Notice', The Era, London, 8 May 1870, p. 5.
  • Anon., 'Pictures at the Royal Academy', Pall Mall Gazette, London, 20 May 1870, pp. 11-12.
  • Anon., 'Exhibition of the Ryal Academy', Illustrated London News, London, 28 May 1870, p. 22.
  • Anon., 'Royal Academy', The Graphic, London, 25 June 1870, p. 11.
  • Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery,' The Scotsman, Edinburgh, 1 May 1878, p. 7.
  • Anon., 'The Grosvenor Gallery,' The Times, London, 2 May 1878, p. 7.
  • Anon. ['From our own correspondent'], 'Art in London', Bristol Times and Mirror, 7 May 1878, p. 4.
  • Anon., '[Grosvenor Gallery] Second Notice', Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer, 14 May 1878, p. 6.
  • Anon., 'A Few Notes on the Grosvenor', Croydon Guardian and Surrey County Gazette, 18 May 1878, p. 8.
  • Anon., 'ACTION for LIBEL against MR. RUSKIN', The Globe, London, 25 November 1878.
  • Anon., Pall Mall Budget, London, 31 March 1892, engraving repr. p. 458.

Journals 1855-1905

  • 'The Royal Academy. 102nd Exhibition', The Art Journal, June 1870, pp. 161-72, at p. 168.
  • Wedmore, Frederick, 'Mr Whistler's Theories and Mr Whistler's Art', The Nineteenth Century, vol. 6, no. 30, August 1879, pp. 334-43.
  • Child, Theodore, 'American Artists at the Paris Exhibition', Harper's New Monthly Magazine, American edition, vol. 79, September 1889, pp. 489-521, at pp. 492-94, engraving repr. p. 491.
  • Sickert, Walter Richard, 'Whistler To-day', The Fortnightly Review, vol. 57, new series, vol. 51, April 1892, pp. 543-47, at p. 547.
  • Matsuki, Bunkio (ed.), 'The Influences that Shaped Whistler's Art', Lotus, vol. 1, no. 1, (Special Holiday Number in Memoriam: James A. McNeill Whistler), December 1903, pp. 38-40, repr. frontispiece.
  • Van Dyke, John C., 'Retrospective Exhibition of Society of American Artists, Harper's Weekly, vol. 36, 1892, p. 1211.
  • Sickert, Walter Richard, 'Whistler To-day', The Fortnightly Review, vol. 57, new series, vol. 51, April 1892, pp. 543-47.
  • Losee, William F., 'James McNeill Whistler, the Painter', Brush and Pencil, vol. 12, no. 5 (special Whistler number), August 1903, pp. 319-20, 323-31, 333, repr. p. 329.
  • Anon., ‘Дж. УистлерЪ [Dzh. Uistler]’, Мир искусства [Mir Iskusstva, 'World of Art'], vol. 9, 1903, pp. 61-68, repr. p. 67.
  • Bénédite, Léonce, 'Artistes Contemporains: Whistler', Gazette des beaux-arts, vol. 33, 1905, pp. 403-10, 496-511; vol. 34, 1905, pp. 142-58, 231-46, in vol. 34 at p. 148.

Monographs

  • None.

Books on Whistler

  • Cary, Elizabeth Luther, The Works of James McNeill Whistler: A Study, with a Tentative List of Artist’s Works, New York, 1907, p. 161 (cat. no. 37).
  • Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler: Uneasy Pieces, New York, 2004, pp. 173, 179.
  • Glazer, Lee, Emily Jacobsen, Blyth McCarthy, and Katherine Roeder, Whistler in Watercolor. Lovely Little Games, Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 2019, p. 37, repr. p. 38.
  • Hartmann, Sadakichi C. (pseudonym of Sidney Allen), The Whistler Book: A Monograph of the Life and Position in Art of James McNeill Whistler, Together with a Careful Study of His More Important Works, Boston, 1910, p. 54.
  • Howard, Michael, The History and Techniques of the Great Masters: Whistler, New Jersey, 1989, pp. 34-37.
  • Laver, James, Whistler, London, 1930, p. 114.
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., (ed.) Whistler's Mother: An American Icon, Aldershot and Burlington, 2003, pp. 25, 30, 38, fig. 28.
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., Susan Galassi, Aileen Ribeiro, and Patricia de Montfort, Whistler, Women and Fashion, New Haven and London, 2003, pp. 64-65, fig. 63.
  • Merrill, Linda, A Pot of Paint: Aesthetics on Trial in 'Whistler v. Ruskin', Washington and London, 1992, pp. ix, 28-29.
  • Merrill, Linda, With Kindest Regards. The Correspondence of Charles Lang Freer and James McNeill Whistler, 1890-1903, Washington, DC, and London, 1995, p. 49, pl. 1.
  • Merrill, Linda, The Peacock Room. A Cultural Biography, New Haven and London, 1998, pp. 58-59, 67, 100, 102, 105-07, 319, fig. 2.24.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Life of James McNeill Whistler, 2 vols, London and Philadelphia, 1908, vol. 1, pp. 122, 156; vol. 2, p. 90.
  • Pennell, Elizabeth Robins, and Joseph Pennell, The Whistler Journal, Philadelphia, 1921, p. 137.
  • Petri, Grischka, Arrangement in Business: The Art Markets and the Career of James McNeill Whistler, Hildesheim, 2011, pp. 113, 132, 138-39, 165, 179, 516, 518, 542-43, 620, 629, 651, 655, 689.
  • Pousette-Dart, Nathaniel, (ed.), James McNeill Whistler,(with introduction by Joseph & Elizabeth Robins Pennell), New York, 1924, pl. 13.
  • Prideaux, Tom, The World of Whistler, New York, 1970, p. 94.
  • Rossetti, William Michael (ed.), Rossetti Papers, 1862-1870, London, 1903, pp. 228-29.
  • Sickert, Bernhard, Whistler, London and New York, 1908, p. 154 (cat. no. 30).
  • Spencer, Robin (ed.), Whistler: A Retrospective, New York, 1989, pp. 73, 83, 143, 279, repr. p. 87.
  • Spencer, Robin, Whistler, New York, 1990, pp. 72-73.
  • Sutherland, Daniel E., Whistler: A Life for Art's Sake, New Haven and London, 2014, pp. 84-85, 110, 115, 126, 256.
  • Sutton, Denys, Nocturne: The Art of James McNeill Whistler, London, 1963, p. 51.
  • Taylor, Hilary, James McNeill Whistler, London, 1978, pp. 48, 50.
  • Way, Thomas Robert, Memories of James McNeill Whistler, the Artist, London and New York, 1912, p. 29.

Books, General

  • Brinton, Christian, Masterpieces of American Painting: a selection of photogravures after paintings exhibited at the Royal academy of arts, Berlin 1910, New York, 1910, pl. 53.
  • Caffin, Charles H., American Masters of Painting, Garden City, 1913, p. 45, repr.
  • Lancaster, Clay, The Japanese Influence in America, New York, 1963, pl. 2, f.p. 17.
  • Lawton, Thomas, Freer: a Legacy of Art, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, 1993, p. 31, fig. 18.
  • Ono, Ayako, Japonisme in Britain: Whistler, Menpes, Henry, Hornel and nineteenth-century Japan, London, 2003, pp. 54-55, 70, 152, repr. p. 50.
  • Pennell, E. R. and J., Distinguished American Artists, New York, 1924.
  • Prettejohn, Elizabeth, Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting, New Haven and London, 2007, p. 171.
  • Pyne, Kathleen A., Art and the Higher Life: Painting and Evolutionary Thought in Late Nineteenth-Century America, Austin, TX, 2010, pp. 103-04, 120.
  • Reff, Theodore, Degas: The Artist’s Mind, New York, 1976, p. 28.
  • Robins, Anna Gruetzner (ed.), Walter Sickert: the Complete Writings on Art, Oxford, 2000, pp. 94-95.
  • Spencer, Robin, Japonisme in Art: An International Symposium, Tokyo, 1980.
  • Stevens, ‎Rebecca A. T. and Yoshiko Iwamoto Wada, ‎The Kimono Inspiration: Art and Art-to-wear in America, Textile Museum, Washington, DC, 1996, p. 46.
  • Vollmer, John E., Re-envisioning Japan: Meiji Fine Art Textiles, Milan, 2019, p. 174.
  • Watanabe, Toshio, High Victorian Japonisme, Berne and New York, 1991, pp. 237, 239, 241-42.
  • Wilmerding, John, Signs of the Artist: Signatures and Self-Expression in American Paintings, New Haven, 2003, p. 125, repr. fig. 99.

Catalogues 1906-Present

COLLECTION:

  • Stubbs, Burns A., Paintings, Pastels, Drawings, Prints and Copper Plates by and attributed to American and European Artists, together with a List of Original Whistleriana in the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, 1948, p. 12 (92.23).
  • Curry, David Park, James McNeill Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art, New York and London, 1984, pp. 106, 291, pl. 6.

EXHIBITION:

  • Ausstellung Amerikanischer Kunst, Königliche Akademie der Künste, Berlin, 1910 as 'Auf dem Balkon' (p. 80, no catalogue numbers; reproduced).
  • Selection of Art Objects from The Freer Collection, National Museum, Washington, DC, 1912.
  • University of Michigan Club, Detroit, 1914 (cat. no. 11).
  • Komanecky, Michael, The Folding Image: Screens by Western Artists of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, New Haven, 1984, p. 106, fig. 117 (not exhibited).
  • Merrill, Linda, et al., After Whistler: The Artist and His Influence on American Painting, High Museum of Art, Atlanta, 2003, pp. 31, 93 (not exhibited).
  • Siewert, John, 'Art, music, and an aesthetics of place in Whistler's Nocturne paintings', in: Lochnan, Katharine, Turner, Whistler, Monet, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; Tate Britain, London, 2004-2005, pp. 141-47, repr. p. 141 (not exhibited).
  • Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006, p. 182, repr. p. 26 (not exhibited).
  • Posnanskaya, Anna, 'Through the Prism of a Nocturne: The Vogue for Japanese Style in Russia', in Andreeva, Galina, and Margaret F. MacDonald, Whistler and Russia, State Tretyakow Gallery, Moscow, 2006, pp. 118-127, at p. 120.
  • MacDonald, Margaret, and Patricia de Montfort, An American in London: Whistler and the Thames, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Addison Gallery of American Art, Freer Gallery of Art, 2013-2014 (cat. no. 32, shown in Washington only).

Journals 1906-Present

  • Abbott, K. (ed.) and Whistler, Anna McNeill, 'The Lady of the Portrait, Letters of Whistler’s Mother', Atlantic Monthly, vol. 136, 1925, pp. 310-28, at p. 324.
  • Brinton, Christian, 'Whistler from Within: An Inquiry into the Inner Significance of the Art of the Greatest American Painter and Etcher of his Day - the Consistency of his Development from Joyous Realism to the Shadowy Nuance of a Spiritualistic Point of View - First and Last', Munsey's Magazine, vol. 36, no. 1, October 1906, pp. 3-20, at p. 16.
  • Clark, Nichols, 'Charles Lang Freer: an American aesthete in the gilded era', The American Art Journal, 1979, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 54-68, repr. fig. 11.
  • Dabo, Leon, 'Japanese Influence on Whistler', Sketch Book, December 1907, p. 57.
  • Denker, Eric, 'Japanese prints and Western Art', Phillips Collection Quarterly, Washington DC, 2005.
  • Dreyfus, Albert, 'James Abbott MacNeill Whistler', Die Kunst für Alle, 1907, vol. 22, pp. 201-16, repr. p. 205.
  • Fell, Herbert Granville, 'Memories of Whistler, No. 1. - The Peacock Room', Connoisseur, vol. 95, February 1935, pp. 74-76.
  • Gray, Basil, 'Japonisme and Whistler', Thw Burlington Magazine, vol. 107, June 1965, at p. 324.
  • Hobbs, Susan, 'A Connoisseur's Vision: The American Collection of Charles Lang Freer', American Art Review, vol. 4, August 1977, pp. 76-101.
  • Sandberg, John, ' “Japonisme” and Whistler', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 106, November 1964, pp. 500-07, at pp. 500-05, 507, woodcut by Haronobu repr. fig. 31.
  • Hobbs, Susan, 'Whistler at the Freer Gallery of Art', Magazines Antiques, vol. 121, November 1981, pp. 1194-202, at pp. 1195, 1197.
  • Sieger, William, 'Whistler and John Chandler Bancroft', Burlington Magazine, vol. 136, October 1994, pp. 675-682.
  • Watanabe, Toshio, 'Eishi Prints in Whistler's Studio? Eighteenth-Century Japanese Prints in the West before 1870', The Burlington Magazine, vol. 128, 1986, pp. 873-80, at p. 877.

Websites

  • Freer Gallery of Art website at https://asia.si.edu/object/F1892.23a-b.
  • MacDonald, Margaret F., 'The chicken and the egg', James McNeill Whistler and his Art, blog at https://jmcnwhistler.wordpress.com.

Unpublished

  • Revillon, Joseph Whistler, Draft Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings of J. McN. Whistler, [ca 1945-1955], Glasgow University Library (cat. no. 40) 'Variations in flesh-colour and green: The balcony / The balcony'.

Other

  • Gorder, Judith Elaine, James McNeill Whistler: A Study in the oil Paintings 1855-1869, PhD dissertation, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1973.
  • Parkerson, Sarah Lawrence, Variations in Gold: The Stylistic Development of the Picture Frames used by James McNeill Whistlers, PhD thesis, University of Glasgow, 2007.

Last updated: 8th June 2021 by Margaret