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

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YMSM 271
Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1884
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1904.314a-c
Medium: oil
Support: wood
Size: 124 x 217 mm (4 7/8 x 8 1/2")
Signature: possibly a butterfly l.r.
Inscription: none
Frame: Replica Dowdeswell, American, W. Lewin, 2004

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud

Titles

Only one title has been suggested:

  • 'Note in blue and opal – The Sun Cloud' (1884, Dowdeswell). 1
  • 'Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud' (1980, YMSM). 2

The punctuation of the original title has been altered to 'Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud' to conform with other titles.

Description

Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud, Freer Gallery of Art
Note in Blue and Opal: The Sun Cloud, Freer Gallery of Art

A landscape in horizontal format. A dark landscape, with a few house roofs seen beyond the summit of a sloping field at right, and trees at left. There appears to be a wall sloping across the field from upper left to lower right. There are scattered clouds across the pale blue sky.

Site

Probably the fishing village of St Ives, Cornwall.

Notes:

1: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 52). 'The Sun cloud, Note in blue and opal' is written on the original backing.

2: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 271).

Last updated: 14th December 2020 by Margaret