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

 

M.0921
Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1883/1884
Collection: Thomas Colville Fine Art
Accession Number: none
Medium: watercolour
Support: dark cream wove paper
Size: 6 3/8 x 4 3/8" (162 x 112 mm)
Signature: none
Inscription: v.: 'Nocturne by Whistler / Penthouse of public-house in St Ives/ Cornwall / painted about 1883 or 1884' and signed illegibly, possibly 'JH'

Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall

Technique

Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall, Thomas Colville Fine Art
Penthouse of the public house in St Ives, Cornwall, Thomas Colville Fine Art

According to Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942) it was done from memory, 'It was painted under my eyes, after we had spent the preceding evening studying the scene from Nature - a little lean-to, tiled pent-house roof outside a public house in the central place of the town.' 1

Notes:

1: Sickert, Walter R., letter to the editor, 'The Works of Whistler', New Age, vol. 10, 29 February 1912, p. 431, no. 18.

Last updated: 18th February 2021 by Margaret