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

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YMSM 296
Blue and Grey: Unloading

Artist: James McNeill Whistler
Date: 1884
Collection: Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Accession Number: F1902.150a-b
Medium: oil
Support: wood
Size: 8.9 x 14.8 cm (3 1/2 x 5 7/8")
Signature: butterfly
Inscription: none
Frame: Small Dowdeswell, 1884 [11.1 cm]

Blue and Grey: Unloading

Titles

Several possible titles have been suggested:

  • 'Blue and grey – Unloading' (1884, Dowdeswell). 1
  • 'Bleu et argent: Le Debarquement' (1887, Petit). 2
  • 'Blue and Grey: Unloading' (1980, YMSM) 3

The 1980 title 'Blue and Grey: Unloading' is based on the original title, with punctuation altered for the sake of conformity.

Description

Blue and Grey: Unloading, Freer Gallery of Art
Blue and Grey: Unloading, Freer Gallery of Art

A beach scene in horizontal format. A small sailing boat is beached on the shore, goods being unloaded onto a cart, and another boat lies beached further away to right.

Site

Possibly St Ives, Cornwall, though it could be a Dutch scene.

Notes:

1: 'Notes' - 'Harmonies' - 'Nocturnes', Messrs Dowdeswell, London, 1884 (cat. no. 56).

2: Exposition Internationale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 1887 (171).

3: YMSM 1980 [more] (cat. no. 296).

Last updated: 14th December 2020 by Margaret