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

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YMSM 046
Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1863
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number: 1922.449
Medium: oil
Support: canvas
Size: 50.8 x 68.6 cm (20 x 27")
Signature: 'Whistler.'
Inscription: '63.'
Frame: : Grau Whistler, possibly F. H. Grau, 1892

Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach

Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach is signed and dated '1863'.

Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach, Art Institute of Chicago
Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach, Art Institute of Chicago

It may have been one of the pictures mentioned, rather cryptically, by Whistler to Ignace-Henri-Jean-Théodore Fantin-Latour (1836-1904) in July 1863: 'Moi aussi j'en ai en train des choses que nous aimerons.' 1

Grey and Silver: Old Battersea Reach was probably the 'Thames picture' seen by William Michael Rossetti (1829-1919) in Whistler's studio on 31 March 1867. 2

It was first exhibited in the 99th Exhibition of the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1867 (cat. no. 243) as 'Battersea'.

Notes:

1: 'I too am working on things that we will like', [6/10 July 1863], GUW #08043.

2: Pennell 1908 [more] , vol. 1, p. 144.

Last updated: 5th June 2021 by Margaret