Chelsea Shops: Yellow and Grey dates from the early 1880s. 1 It may have been painted in the spring of 1884, when Whistler told Mortimer Luddington Menpes (1860-1938) that he would be "at the 'shop' game" on the Thames Embankment in the early morning. 2

Chelsea Shops: Yellow and Grey, Freer Gallery of Art

Street in Old Chelsea, Boston Museum of Fine Arts

It was almost certainly first exhibited in Whistler's show of 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 11) with several other recent shop studies, Harmony in Yellow and Brown: Sunday [YMSM 248] and Street in Old Chelsea [YMSM 249] based in Chelsea, and, from St Ives, Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop [YMSM 263], An Orange Note: Sweet Shop [YMSM 264] and A Grey Note: Village Street [YMSM 265]. All may have been painted specifically for the Dowdeswell exhibition.

Blue and Orange: Sweet Shop, I. S. Gardner Museum, Boston

An Orange Note: Sweet Shop, Freer Gallery of Art

A Grey Note: Village Street, The Hunterian