Titles
Suggested titles include:
- ' "Golden Bay" – Ireland' (1903, Whistler). 1
- 'Gray & Gold – The Golden Bay' (1903, Whistler). 2
- 'Gray and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland' (1904, Copley Society, Boston). 3
- 'Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland' (1980, YMSM). 4
With modified spelling and punctuation, 'Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland' is the preferred title.
Description
Grey and Gold: The Golden Bay, Ireland, Hunter Museum of American Art
A view across a bay, in horizontal format. Across the foreground is the curve of a shingle beach, with a few rocks, and in the distance, a low green promontory stretches across the horizon. The far side of the bay is nearly lost in warm-tinted shades of grey and deep turquoise. The sky is pale blue and turquoise with scattered clouds. The rays of the setting sun touch the ship and the clouds with a golden glow.
Site
Painted at Sutton, near Dublin, Ireland and probably listed as ‘Sea piece: Dublin Bay’ by Whistler’s sister-in-law, Miss R. Birnie Philip, in Whistler’s studio on 16 February 1901. 5
Walter Armstrong (1850-1918), then director of the National Gallery of Ireland, told the Pennells that Whistler took a house, ‘Craigie ... at Sutton, six miles from Dublin, on the spit of sand which connects the Hill of Howth with the mainland ... on the north side of Dublin Bay’; the Pennells mention that the visit was a failure: ‘The house was on the wrong side of the Bay, the weather was wretched.’ 6
Notes:
1: Whistler to R. A. Canfield, [8 May 1903], GUW #13077.
2: Whistler to Canfield, 8 May 1903, GUW #13079; 'Grey & Gold the Golden Bay' was also written by Whistler on a label on the verso.
3: Oil Paintings, Water Colors, Pastels and Drawings: Memorial Exhibition of the Works of Mr. J. McNeill Whistler, Copley Society, Boston, 1904 (cat. no. 78).
4: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 537).
5: GUL Whistler BP II Ledger c, pp. 5-6.
Last updated: 18th October 2020 by Margaret
