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

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YMSM 086
Symphony in Blue and Pink

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1868
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1903.179a-b
Medium: oil
Support: millboard mounted on wood
Size: 46.7 x 61.9 cm (18 3/8 x 24 3/8")
Signature: none
Inscription: none
Frame: Grau-style, American, after 1903 [17.8 cm]

Symphony in Blue and Pink

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

  • 'Symphony in Blue and Pink' (1874, Flemish Gallery). 1
  • 'Symphony in Blue and Pink' (1980, YMSM). 2

Description

Symphony in Blue and Pink, Freer Gallery of Art
Symphony in Blue and Pink, Freer Gallery of Art

A figure composition in horizontal format. Four women, three in white robes and one (the second from the left) in blue, with stoles in green and blue, walk on a beach by the sea. The woman second from the right carries a parasol.

Sitter

Unknown.

Comments

Japonisme:

Kyonaga, A Party viewing the Moon on the Sumida River, right hand section of triptych, Boston Museum of Fine Art
Kyonaga, A Party viewing the Moon on the Sumida River, right hand section of triptych, Boston Museum of Fine Art

The theme that runs through the 'Six Projects' is seen repeatedly in Japanese woodcuts, and particularly those of Torrii Kiyonaga (1752-1815), as noted by C. L. Freer. Kiyonaga's Cool of the Evening by the Sumida River relates to the composition of both Symphony in Blue and Pink [YMSM 086] and Variations in Blue and Green [YMSM 084].

Notes:

1: Mr Whistler's Exhibition, Flemish Gallery, 48 Pall Mall, London, 1874 (cat. no. 11).

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 85).

Last updated: 4th December 2020 by Margaret