Titles

Only one title is known:

• 'A Shop with a Balcony' (1960, Arts Council). 1
• 'A Shop with a Balcony' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

A facade of a shop with an arched frontage, in vertical format. A large woman and large dog stand in the open door to right of centre, and the many-paned windows show faint glimpses of goods. A boy or man is standing on the pavement at left, and a woman and baby are seen in the door opening onto the small balcony above the shop. The shop is painted a warm purplish plum colour, the shutter, brown, and the plastered wall in the arch above, pale yellow ochre.

Site

This has been identified as a side street in Dieppe, off the Place du Moulin à Vent. Dieppe was an important port, ferry terminal and holiday destination on the French coast. Whistler stayed first at the Hotel Lefevre and then at the Pavillon Madeleine. In October 1899, Whistler said 'the place is deserted and Dieppe is empty.' 3 He complained of the weather:

'It should have had a huge tube of cadmium yellow spurted in its face by one of that group! -

Of course you do not suppose I look at the landscape of the place! No - it is another matter - but even that is scarcely to be got at for more than half an hour a day! and often not at all.' 4