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

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YMSM 083
Symphony in Green and Violet

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1868
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1903.176
Medium: oil
Support: millboard, mounted on wood
Size: 61.9 x 45.8 cm (24 3/8" x 18")
Signature: none
Inscription: none
Frame: Grau-style, American, after 1903 [17.8 cm]

Symphony in Green and Violet

Titles

Suggested titles are as follows:

  • 'Symphony in Green and Violet' (1905, Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Paris). 1
  • 'Symphony in Green and Violet' (1980, YMSM). 2

'Symphony in Green and Violet' is the correct title.

It was not shown in the Exposition Nationale des Beaux-Arts, 7th exhibition, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Champs de Mars, Paris, 1897 (cat. no. 1257) as 'Vert et violet', as suggested in the 1980 catalogue. 3 The work exhibited in 1897 was Green and Gold: A Shop in Calais [YMSM 474].

Description

Symphony in Green and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art
Symphony in Green and Violet, Freer Gallery of Art

An upright figure composition, with two women, one in pale blue robes at left, and the other in pale cream, lean on a railing, looking to left. The sea is just visible in the distance. There are white blossoms at the lower left edge. There are considerable signs of pentimenti.

Sitter

Unknown.

Notes:

1: Œuvres de James McNeill Whistler, Palais de l'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, 1905 (cat. no. 13).

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 83).

3: Ibid.

Last updated: 25th November 2020 by Margaret